The Fall
by allconspirer
Summary: Silly collection of oneshots of NaruHina that I wrote when I was bored. Third chapter pure fluff Read Review!
1. The Fall

Ok this is a oneshot silly little NarutoHinata thingy!

Please read with an open mind as this is my first real attempt at a oneshot, the idea comes from my favourite TV series Waking the Dead, I watched it and wondered '_what would happen if Naruto and Hinata were put in that position_' it's based on a scene from it but I've taken some artistic licence here and added some extras. This means that it's based in modrn day England and all characters mentioned are police officers or forensic scientists working for the cold case squad, they still look the same but they don't use chakra, jutsu's etc. etc.

I don't own Naruto or waking the dead

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Five days ago a group of builders working in an abandoned building were astonished when one of the ceilings collapsed. It wasn't the collapse of the building that astonished them but what fell through the whole in the ceiling, two bodies dropped down. Despite the deterioration of the two bodies due to the length of time the two had been up there it was obvious at first glance that they were a heterosexual couple and they were in an embrace of the most intimate variety. They had been in a hidden room and that was why they remained undiscovered for so long, inside the room there was luggage and ID for false identities.

The police were called in but considering how old the bodies were the assignment was soon handed over to the cold case unit.

So far thanks to identification papers they had been able to identify the male but not the female. Right now they were trying to discover time and cause of deaths, Superintendent Kakashi, also known as the best detective on the force was responsible for the investigation. As per his request Shikamaru the scientist in charge of the lab had created a floor plan of the crime scene, to help study the ballistics.

Now the young but brilliant scientist was joined by Naruto and Kakashi, they stood together looking around the layout that Shikimaru had created.

"As you can see" Shikimaru pointed out "the couple would have been on the desk there."

"Uh-huh"

"And the murderer would be standing here" Shikamaru stood on the x he had drawn on the floor "Uh this is tricky to explain like this…" he scratched his head "I kind of need dummies to show the couple properly… troublesome"

At that moment the door opened "Kakashi?" the shyest police woman on the team…no probably the face of the planet Hinata stuck her head into the room and seeing the superintendent walked in "I have an ID on the woman"

"Already? Nice going Hinata!" Naruto complemented making the young detective blush lightly

"Thank you"

"How'd you ID her?"

"B-breast implants" Hinata whispered feeling a little embarrassed handing a file over to her boss, ready to leave the moment she'd finished talking "th-they had a silicone sac reference code and we m-managed to trace them. Her name was Katherine Keane. Disappeared seven years ago they thought she'd run off with another man and so didn't really look for her. Apparently she had multiple l-lovers…they just thought she'd finally picked one. It's all in the file"

"Interesting" Kakashi took the folder but instead of allowing Hinata to leave he grabbed her arm smirking lightly "Actually Hinata we need you for a moment. Shikamaru you wanted two dummies, I think that description fits Naruto even if it is a little insulting to Hinata… but she'll do"

"Perfect" Shikamaru said with a grin "Ok Hinata just jump up onto this shelf for me!"

"Ok…?" Hinata nodded nervously, judging from the smirks on Shikamaru's and Kakashi's faces this could be a little embarrassing, she glanced at Naruto for answers but he looked as confused as her.

After Hinata had sat on top of the bookshelf Shikamaru moved towards her, "Slide a little to the left please"

"W-what are we d-doing here exactly?" Hinata asked

"Just recreating the crime scene" Shikamaru chuckled playfully "Now Naruto come here, stand in front of Hinata"

The blonde walked forward and did as he was told, he could see a hot blush cover the pale young woman. He smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring way but she just looked down at the floor space between them.

"Hinata if you could just open your legs and Naruto stand between them"

"What?" Naruto turned to glare at the pony-tailed scientist, but Shikimaru just gave him an innocent look.

"I'm just recreating the scene, now Hinata just open your legs"

Mute with apprehension Hinata obeyed orders, she was almost trembling as Naruto blushing slightly walked to stand between her legs and Shikamaru pushed him closer. Thank god she wore trousers today, she sometimes wore skirts but she was going to wear trousers constantly from now on!!

"Ok, hands out of your pockets Naruto" Shikamaru could barely stop himself from smiling at the reactions from the two "Now the couple were…we think here… get closer Naruto" He pushed the blonde into the dark haired girls chest "Now one arm here" One by one he grabbed Hinata's arms and pulled them over Naruto's shoulders before saying "Ok Naruto hold her like this" He wrapped Naruto's arms around her, one hand was placed high almost on her shoulder but the other was lower, placed very deliberately at the small of her back.

Nervous as hell Hinata just sat there as unresponsive as possible trying to pretend she wasn't in the arms of the man of her dreams. She was beginning to regret finding the identification of the woman as no doubt if she hadn't entered Shikamaru would have made do without the re-enactment, either that or it would be Kakashi and Naruto in this position, she giggled silently at the idea.

Mistaking her giggling for nervousness Naruto thought he could feel Hinata trembling, he was feeling a little embarrassed himself, truth be told he thought Hinata very attractive and holding her this close made him pay even more attention to her beauty. His face was mere millimetres from hers and he could just imagine in another situation moving her face to look at him and kissing her gently.

"This is fun" an amused Kakashi muttered to Shikamaru "but aren't you taking it a little too far, they needn't hold each other like that really"

"Right Hinata just wrap your legs around him" Shikimaru urged ignoring his superior for once

Holding her breath Hinata did as instructed but when she looked up to see how Naruto was taking all this she really wished she hadn't. He was grinning at her his large startlingly blue eyes gazed into hers in a pleased way that confused her.

"Ok" Shikamaru was back to work now his fun over "The killer would have been here… as you can see the first thing he would have seen if walking over to the desk was the couple, now depending on where the unknown woman…"

"K-Katherine Keane" Hinata corrected tearing her gaze away form Naruto's eyes

"Oh yeah Katherine" Shikamaru agreed "depending on her head was she might not have seen him right away. If it was not directed towards the doorway… Hinata place your head on Naruto's shoulder please… no face in his neck"

"Sorry" Hinata whispered her breath ghosting over Naruto's skin causing him to shiver slightly.

"So she's like that… now we know the man… Mervin Simmel did have a gun in his desk… we're not sure what type but it had been seen by people and they knew it was there. So if this killer… maybe one of Katherine's other lovers happened upon them accidentally… and knowing that the weapon would be there… he could have grabbed Mervin's gun in a fit of passion which would put him here." Shikamaru paused by the desk "but we know that the shot was fired from here" he moved closer to the doorway of the hidden room. "so he'd have to move around the desk but why? Why not just shoot from the desk? Especially if you're that mad…"

"Of course in order to see the couple the killer would have to have walked into the room at least this far" Kakashi said moving to an angle where he could see Naruto and Hinata "so the person would have had to walk in this room purposefully, maybe he was looking for them?"

"That's if they were being quiet" Shikamaru acknowledged "it could be that they attracted his attention... Hinata look up again over at the doorway"

Hinata did as she was told, she was less pink now, actually she was beginning to become rather comfortable in this position.

"Now tell me how much of me you can see as I walk around"

Looking up Hinata told Shikimaru when he was within her sight and when he disappeared from view

"So it's safe to say she would have seen him" Kakashi asked confusedly

"Not really" Hinata said with an embarrassed shrug "I mean sh-she might have been t-too caught up in what she was doing…"

"So you think she might not have seen the killer at all?"

"No… not if he was quiet and quick" Hinata observed "And it only took one shot"

"Yes!" Shikamaru agreed walking towards the couple embracing on the shelf "Because the shot went through him" he pointed to a spot on Naruto's back "into her… lean back Hinata" she did so "…into her here…, and then out the other side, lean forward…, into the wall here!"

"Which is why he wouldn't be too far from the doorway" Naruto acknowledged "because then the bullet wouldn't have gone into the wall behind her, it would have stopped within her body."

"Right!" Shikamaru nodded moving back into the secret room's doorway "So that's why we know the killer was here!"

"That's actually the desk right?" Naruto asked suddenly

"Yeah actually it came from the scene" Shikamaru nodded giving his colleague an odd look "it was left where it was because it's such a heavy old thing no one could be bothered to move it. It was tough getting it out of there but I wanted to run tests and use it to create this."

"Open the drawer, the one where the gun was kept"

"Why"

"Just try it" Naruto pleaded

"Ok" Shikamaru walked back around the desk and opened the top drawer, as he opened it the drawer scraped loudly.

"Can you see him right now?" Naruto asked turning to Hinata gazing momentarily into her blank but incredibly expressive eyes before she looked towards the doorway

"Yes"

"So assuming the drawer always made that noise" Naruto alleged "Katherine would have heard that and looked up seen the killer with the gun and made a movement, maybe pushed Mervin away? What would you do Hinata, just seeing him?"

"Um" Hinata tried to imagine seeing a killer with a gun she pulled away from Naruto and pushing him tried to get off the bookshelf "I'd probably have said something too maybe warned Mervin"

"Ok so the killer wouldn't have had time to walk here?" Shikimaru asked moving around the desk and into the doorway. "And still shoot you in that position from before?"

"No I'd have definitely moved" Hinata nodded firmly "even if I hadn't seen the gun I'd have done something, and Mervin would have heard the noise…maybe turned"

"Maybe" Naruto nodded turning to look behind him "you're always in view Shikamaru, if I turn even a little I can see you" he turned back and then looked around the other way "Can see you clearly turning this way as well"

"And if he turned" Hinata offered "the bullet wounds wouldn't be positioned as they are"

"Right so I'm pretty sure that drawer would always make that noise…it's that type of wood" Shikimaru paused "and if I think about it aged wood like this in a dry atmosphere wouldn't expand at all. I can ask the secretary if it always made that noise."

"So from all this we can assume that the killer arrived here with a gun, which suggests premeditated murder…not merely an opportunistic killing." Kakashi mused

"Ok…, once more Naruto Hinata into position"

Blushing again Hinata sat back onto the shelf and Naruto stepped between her legs and placed his arms around her. She looked at his face as she wrapped her arms around his neck and lifted her legs around him, he was really grinning now.

"Right so I'm the killer" Kakashi said moving towards the doorway and backing out of view entirely. He then walked in to the doorway set up by Shikimaru into view of Hinata and standing on the position they knew the killer would have been in. He then raised his hand pointing with one finger like a gun "I shoot…bang" he made the action with his hand as though shooting. "you two fall to the floor"

"So we now think **maybe **he brought the gun with him" Shkimaru stated

"So what happened to Mervin's gun?" Kakashi enquired turning to point at the desk

Shikimaru turned to look at the desk as well, after a few moments he mused "Maybe he took it with him,"

"Why?"

"So people would think it was Mervin's gun not his own, they might not look for another weapon, there aren't too many unregistered guns around here. Another question is why did no one hear it?" Shikamaru asked turning to face Kakashi "A gunshot would have been heard"

"Must have been a day when people weren't around"

"So the weekend?"

"That would make sense"

"Maybe they were planning to run off together, it would explain why Mervin wrote that goodbye letter to his brother"

"And why she had a case with her." Kakashi pointed out remembering that they had discovered some of the woman's luggage in the hidden room

"Why would anyone meet for a romantic tryst here? Surely a hotel would be more appropriate…"

"We know they were both well off and neither of them had a partner to worry about. That we know of" Kakashi corrected himself "Hinata what else do you know of Katherine Keane? …Hinata? ...Hinata?"

Ever since Naruto and Hinata had sat together the second time they had looked each other in the eye. Hinata was frozen, she couldn't stop staring into those amazing eyes, they were almost unnaturally blue, and his bright blonde hair was getting longer these days and fell onto his tanned forehead making him look sexy in a messy dangerous sort of way. Oh damn it why couldn't she be professional right now? She felt like the room was spinning, if Sakura or Ino the other girls on the team had been here they would have been fine! But noooo she was here and she was feeling extremely faint.

In contrast to his partners uncomfortable expression Naruto was smiling in a soft way, looking down into her troubled eyes, her skin was tinged a sweet pink that actually went well with her hair. She had such dark hair, an amazing contrast to her incredibly pale skin. He was always surprised at how nervous she was around him, he could tell she liked him but she never actually did anything about it. She was unbelievably nervy when he was flirty and he had often wondered what would happen if he did make a move on her, she got so shaky sometimes that he was afraid she might faint.

"Guys!" Shikamaru yelled a little to get through to them, they both turned to look at him their faces filled with confusion.

"Sorr-sorry" Hinata stuttered after turning her gaze from Naruto's to face Shikimaru and Kakashi "w-what was that?"

"You two can get down now" Shikimaru suddenly said, remembering why they were up there "we have the scene set now"

"Right" Naruto declared flashing Hinata a quick grin as he hugged her tighter before finally letting her go "Shame really, I was just getting comfortable" he hissed watching as she blushed even brighter. He then helped her down from her position on the shelf.

"Ok" Shikimaru grinned as he noticed Hinata's blush "we know Mervin Simnel disappeared at the same time as over two million was stolen form his company. Now it was assumed he'd done a bunk because of the goodbye letter he left for his brother which was discovered on his desk so no one really wondered about him. His brother seemed to be the only person in his life, no other family, no wife or girlfriend. So no one to get jealous over his relationship with Katherine"

"Right so we know that Mervin's only family or emotional attachment was his brother" Kakashi nodded "So Hinata what else do you know of Katherine Keane?"

"K-Katherine Keane um" Hinata paused "right I have nothing on her before 1990, I'm still looking into it… she had a f-fiancé when she…, when she went missing, he was the one that reported her gone. She had several other serious affairs going on at the time." Hinata took the file she had given Kakashi and pulled out a page "most of these men were in relationships themselves, three were married, one was in a long term relationship had been for seven years and still is. The other two men were single and both were interested in a proper relationship with her. They didn't see her fiancé as much of a problem, one even proposed"

"So she had seven men on the go at once?" Kakashi asked sounding impressed "must have been tricky, especially if some of them were possessive"

"Yeah I hate sharing" Naruto said moving to stand near Hinata feeling her whole body go rigid as his arm brushed against hers. He grinned down at her but she refused to look at him concentrating instead on the paper in her hand.

"It was eight including Mervin" Hinata murmured pulling out another page of information, a few photos dropped out at the same time falling to the floor but she ignored them for a moment. "the only problem is all these men will have distanced themselves by now and proving alibi's will be tricky"

"That's usually a problem for us though"

"There is another thing" Hinata told them "Adrian Peterson one of her most attentive lovers and from the looks of things the most possessive they think killed himself three days after she went missing."

"So it could be that the killer is dead?" Kakashi asked "Driven by what he had done into suicide?"

"Maybe but…" Hinata paused

"But what?" Shikamaru persisted

"But… I did a little extra research there's some suspicion around his death. There was an idea that maybe he didn't kill himself. Some evidence at the scene seemed to point towards another party being there. There wasn't much evidence so they kind of let it go…"

"Another suspicious death" Shikamaru groaned

"Troublesome huh?" Naruto asked causing Hinata to giggle a little.

"I think that's enough for tonight" Kakashi mumbled as he looked at his watch "we can start looking for these other men tomorrow morning. Don't be late you guys" and with that Kakashi left the room

"He tells us not to be late" Naruto grumbled "we aren't the ones that get lost on the road of life every morning!" To Naruto's pleasure this earned another giggle from Hinata and he grinned down at her. She smiled back up at him before turning to the desk and laying down her papers.

She then knelt on the floor to pick up the pictures she had dropped earlier.

"I'm heading to the lab again" Shikamaru muttered "see you two tomorrow" he them leaned in closer to Naruto hissing "just take her for a drink or something see how it goes." he then walked off leaving a smirking Naruto and a nervous Hinata.

Hinata hadn't heard exactly what Shikamaru had said but she could guess as to the nature of his comment. Picking up the photos, Hinata stood quickly jamming them into her file any old way not caring if she damaged them.

"S-see you tomorrow Naruto" she muttered making to move away but Naruto grabbed her arm

"Wait a second" she trembled a little and he smiled at her nervousness "are you doing anything after work?"

"No…"

Naruto grinned at her moving to place his hand on her shoulder making her look up at him "Well, I was wondering…"

"Naruto!" Suddenly Sakura entered the room, seeing the two of them she stopped still grinning at them "Oh! I didn't mean to interrupt anything…. sorry"

"It's OK" Hinata muttered pulling out of Naruto's grasp and practically running from the room.

An amused Sakura watched as Hinata fled away down the corridor, she turned back to make a joke to Naruto but stopped when his angry expression made her feel nervous "I really did interrupt something didn't I?"

Sighing Naruto shook his head, he smiled at his friend "I'll ask her another time, it just would've been easier cos she was relaxed with me for a moment… sorry what did you want?"

"I found the man who headed the company that owned the building, he was one Declan Keane"

"Keane? Related to Katherine Keane?"

"Um… I don't know" Sakura shook her head "who was Katherine Keane?"

"Our un-identified female"

--

Carefully negotiating the car Hinata drove through the streets following Naruto's instructions. They were following Declan Keane, Naruto was watching the mans car and telling Hinata where to go. She was watching the road carefully concentrating on seeming an ineffectual driver as she remained a few cars behind the large black Mercedes Benz.

Finally the car led them to a large building site, Declan and his companion left his vehicle and made their way onto the site walking straight into the office.

Hinata drove around the back of the site, she found a small country lane it was short and they could see that it didn't actually lead anywhere but it was good enough meaning that they were parked out of sight from the road.

"I'll go in" Naruto told her "Stay here and keep your eyes open"

"Remember that they both have guns registered to them, and are rumoured to carry them at all times. They're ruthless and it's thought that Declan is responsible for the death of a police officer, he won't think twice about hurting you"

"I remember, I'm not that forgetful" he sounded insulted as he unbuckled his seatbelt

"I'm just saying be careful" Hinata gave him a shy smile making Naruto grin in return

"When am I not careful?" he asked jokingly before opening his door, leaving the car and running off.

"All the time" Hinata muttered watching him go

Careful not to be seen Naruto sneaked around the site and hid round the back of the office, they had thought about bringing Declan in for questioning but they didn't want to alert him to the fact that they had found the bodies or that he was a suspect. It was easier to watch him covertly for a while and decide what type of man he was before doing that.

As Naruto edged closer and closer to the office he could hear the sounds of arguing, three men were practically yelling at each other in the office. He got nearer and was soon able to make out what they were saying.

"If you two hadn't been so stupid and dragged us both into this mess"

"It wasn't my wife that got involved with Mervin"

"She wasn't my wife anymore either!"

"Yeah well they've found her now haven't they?"

"What makes you so sure of that?"

"Because I just found out they were going to refurbish the building entirely, a friend of mine was running construction but for some reason all work on the building was stopped and the police were brought in"

"Damn!"

Outside the building Naruto grinned triumphantly, there was no doubt that all these men knew that those bodies were hidden there, so it was more than likely that one of them was the killer. He would normally have done something there and then but Hinata's warning stayed with him and he simply moved a little closer to try and recognise the voices.

"Hey there's someone out there!"

Surprised Naruto looked around… there was no way they could have seen him from where he was but when he looked left he realised that his shadow had fallen into view of the window. Before they could leave the office he was gone darting off across the site keeping out of view as much as possible.

Hinata sitting in her car more than a little surprised when a breathless Naruto appeared from seemingly nowhere jumping into the passenger seat.

"I think they're following me"

"Did they see you?"

"Not properly"

"Are they armed?"

"We can't risk it, if they find us here…"

"There's no way out of here without going past them." Hinata shouted desperately

"Damn" Naruto cursed, he couldn't believe he had been so stupid "so what do we say we were doing here looking at the wildlife?"

It took Hinata a split second to think of what to do, and although the thought of doing it made her want to pass out she moved quickly trying not to think too much.

Naruto was stunned when the eternally shy Hinata climbed out of her seat and sat straddling his lap "Hinata?"

"Just follow my lead" she hissed blushing hotly before pressing her lips onto his.

The first kiss was nervous and, due to the shock Naruto was in, a little one-sided, but as he realised what she was doing he inwardly smirked bringing his arms up to hold her. Who would have guessed that their first kiss would be so involved?

The second kiss was more mutual, Hinata was clearly nervous, she was even shaking a little, but Naruto was quite happy to take control of the situation and he leaned forward this time causing her to rest back on the headboard, after a while his lips left hers and began to trace down along her neck.

For an instant Naruto forgot what was happening and just enjoyed having Hinata in his lap, then she moved her head into his neck and whispered "Are they anywhere in sight?"

"Um…" Naruto snapped back into reality, looking out the corner of his eye he could see two men staring at the car, moving his lips close to her ear he hissed "They see us"

"I hope this works" Hinata said moving her lips back to Naruto's

'It's certainly working for me' Naruto thought to himself as he closed his eyes losing himself in the kiss. He ran his fingers through her long hair, it was so soft and luxurious, he could feel her hands on his shoulders fisting the material of his jacket. One of his hands stroked up and down her spine feeling the row of bones easily through the thin material of her shirt.

Moving back to her neck he could see the two men had gotten closer, but were now walking away, obviously Hinata's idea had worked. They had decided that the couple in the car were just a harmless pair of lovers getting a moment alone. He watched as the two men walked out of sight, they were safe, he really ought to stop this and tell Hinata that it was OK to stop. He should tell her that they were safe and there was no need to keep kissing… he ought to… he should… but he didn't. One of Hinata's hands had gone to the back of his head rubbing his neck, he loved that, it felt soo good.

He placed one hand on her cheek stroking the soft skin, the other hand he kept at her back pressing her body to his. Finally Hinata placed her mouth by his ear again "Are they still there?"

"No…" oops! Answered that one too quickly!

"No?" Hinata turned to look around her "when did they go?"

"Umm just now?" he couldn't help it he didn't sound convincing and he knew he looked guilty. He grinned at her, that charming grin that would make most woman swoon

"When did they go?" she repeated not believing him, she had worked with him for too long to fall for his beguiling ways

"About a minute ago"

"Why didn't you tell me?" she squirmed out of his hold and sat back in her seat, her face was bright red as she angrily buckled her seatbelt.

"I dunno" he shrugged, it was a lie but he figured that the truth wouldn't go down too well. "But we ought to wait a minute or two before driving or they might get suspicious."

"And we'd hate for anyone to suspect that we were tricking them in an incredibly devious way." Hinata spat out the words and stared forward refusing to look at Naruto.

The blonde wanted to point out that she had been enjoying it as much as he had but Naruto wisely decided not to say anything. Facing three men with guns was actually preferable to the angry Hinata.

--

"We have no evidence to really connect these men to the crime scene" Shikimaru shrugged thinking about the three businessmen waiting to be interviewed.

"Wait…" Hinata paused looking at the papers they had found on Mervin Simmels desk "look at the envelopes he was going to send" she picked up one of the letters and held it up

"What about it?" Shikimaru asked

"Well if we compare it to the goodbye letter he left ready to send to his brother…"

"The writing, the ink, the paper is all the same" Kakashi shrugged "What else is there to look at?"

"The way it's sealed" Hinata explained holding it up "these envelopes are all tucked in and then taped over… the one he sent to his brother"

"Was licked" Shikimaru exclaimed realising what Hinata was getting at, "Maybe the murderer saw the letter and saw it's potential, placed it in an envelope, and then licked it without thinking!"

"It's one hell of a long shot" Sakura sighed

"Well Shikimaru you go test that envelope" Kakashi demanded, Shikimaru bowed politely before rushing from the room. "Right Hinata, Sakura and Ino go get our interviewees to give you a DNA sample, take one each, remember to use the phrase…to cross them off our list of suspects as often as possible"

"Why them?" Naruto asked, "surely it would be better for Shikimaru to do it."

"I'm making them do it because if you're a guy and a pretty woman walks in and asks you to open your mouth, you're more likely to do it."

--

It was another case solved, the ex-husband was the cold blooded if rather predictable killer and he was quite willing to bring the other two men down with him. In keeping with tradition the group went out together for a drink to celebrate getting a particularly hard case solved. Kakashi never joined them, it was the younger members of the team Shikimaru, Naruto, Ino Hinata and Sakura who felt the need to wind down.

As the evening progressed Ino and Shikimaru disappeared off together leaving Hinata and Naruto with a very tipsy Sakura. The Hyuga girl shook her head as she looked at her colleague, Sakura wasn't usually a heavy drinker but her recent break up meant she was acting out of character.

"Come on Sakura" Hinata stood and grabbed the other girls bag "Lets get you out of here"

"I'll help you take her home" Naruto laughed grasping Sakura's arm and pulling it over his shoulder "Good thing I didn't drink anything"

"Thanks" Hinata smiled shyly at him and followed him out of the bar "She's staying with me at the moment"

"What's up with her and that boyfriend?" Naruto asked as he half carried Sakura out of the bar

"Leeee" Sakura told him slurring a little "hiss name iss Lee and he'sss an idiot"

"Oh right!" Naruto lay Sakura down in the back of his car and then politely opened the passenger door for Hinata.

"He wants her to quit work when they get married" Hinata explained before she got into the car "It's just a silly argument, they'll be back together this time next week"

Following Hinata's instructions Naruto drove the two girls home, he wasn't surprised when they stopped at an apartment block in the more expensive part of town. He lifted Sakura out of the car with ease and followed Hinata finally depositing the pink haired girl in Hinata's own bed.

"She usually sleeps on the couch" Hinata explained as she led him out the bedroom and into the kitchen "but I figure she'll need something more comfortable to sleep it off"

"Yeah" Naruto smiled at Hinata, once more she was at ease with him, he knew it wouldn't last long so he needed to say something before she started blushing and stuttering again.

"Want a drink?" Hinata asked politely

"No thanks… Hinata?"

"Y-yeah"

Damn she was stuttering already! "You busy tomorrow after work?"

"N-no"

"Great" Naruto gave her a wide grin "You can come for a drink with me."

"J-just you and m-me?"

"Yes just you and me"

"Y-you mean l-like a d-d-d" the poor girl was blushing so hard she looked like she was going to faint.

"Date?" Naruto supplied trying not to laugh at her nervousness, they had been making out just the other day and now the idea of a date was turning her into a stuttering mess.

"Yeah" she whispered ducking her head and pointing her fingers together

"Yeah" Naruto grinned slipping his arms around her waist and lifting her chin to look at him "like a date"

"O-ok" Hinata smiled a little

"Great" Naruto grinned again and this time he moved in to begin the kissing session.

* * *

Ok kind of stupid but I had a two hour train ride this weekend and nothing to do except work on my fanfics. Well I could have done my coursework but where's the fun in that??

R&R


	2. Cerasus Killings

Hey everyone, well even though I only got one review quite a few people favourited this story and I love that! So even though I am a total review Junkie and usually updates depend on reviews we have an update!! I was watching Waking the dead again and got an idea for another story.

It's another oneshot but it's the same setting etc. etc. so this story is kinda like a series. The bad guys will all have names from Naruto as well so you can remember what side they're on.

I do not own Naruto

* * *

Cold Case LH43298

The 1998 Cerasus Killings.

Sakura remembered them well from her youth, it had been a terrifying time. Eight women were taken form their homes in broad daylight leaving not a scrap of evidence as to where they were going. There was always a suggestion of a struggle but nothing was ever found to give away who had taken them.

The women had all been around the same age, late twenties to early thirties, most of them disappeared from their home and all of them were living alone but none of them were single. They were found days later and it was never pretty, all the women had been tortured in the worst ways and strangled.

As she put up the photos Sakura was aware of a slight tremble making the picture shake

"Are you OK?"

Sakura turned to find Hinata staring at her with a sympathetic look "I'm fine" she shrugged "I just remember at the time my mum got really worried about it. It was stupid, I was still technically a kid you know?"

"I know" Hinata took one of the pictures from her and stared at it "Back then it was stupid you were too young, he only took women. Now you're worried, because now, you are his type"

Sticking the picture up Hinata sighed, that was something else all the victims had in common. They all had pink hair.

--

Kakashi was late, he was always late so they weren't surprised.

The team gathered around the table ready for a briefing, Ino and Sakura were sitting together teasing each other, Shikimaru was reading a report, Hinata and Naruto were looking over some photos.

"Why are we re-opening this case now?" Ino asked suddenly bringing them all into conversation. "It was years ago"

"From the file I p-pulled yesterday, I think it has something to do with Zabuza" Hinata said quietly "He was a drug d-dealer and long time suspect in this case but they couldn't connect him to it officially, all they had w-was circumstantial evidence."

"But they got him for something right?" Ino asked curiously "I mean… the killings stopped"

"We brought him down for possession with intent, he was near a school and had a violent past so he got a long sentence." Kakashi announced suddenly entering the room. "Sorry I'm late, dead badger on the railway lines!"

"Liar" Sakura muttered to Ino who nodded in agreement

"Sorry" he shrugged apologetically before sitting at the head to the table. "Ok, I'm sure you all remember this case going down with the possible exception of Hinata…"

"I looked it up l-last night" Hinata told him switching her attention form the fascinating blonde sitting next to her to her silver haired boss.

"Why didn't you know about it?" Sakura asked, "it was in the papers, on the news, they gave talks in schools, it was everywhere, you would have been… what 15?"

"My family moved to France for business for a few years, when I was 14, we didn't return till I was eighteen" Hinata shrugged, she was feeling increasingly aware of Naruto's hand that had dropped below the table to rest on her thigh.

"Ah the life of a Hyuga princess" Ino teased Hinata responded by sticking out her tongue and grinning.

The minute attention was off herself Hinata turned to glare at Naruto who was staring innocently at Kakashi looking for all the world as though he was only concentrating on what his boss was saying and not teasing his girlfriend by slowly moving his hand further up her leg.

"Hinata are you alright?" Sakura asked suddenly "You're awfully red"

"F-fine" Hinata muttered moving her chair a little so Naruto's hand had to drop onto the hard plastic.

"Anyway…" Kakashi sounded annoyed at being interrupted "we are reopening the case because the chief suspect is up for parole in just over two months. There's a likelihood that he'll get out this time and we have been asked to reopen this case and see if we can get anything new on him before the hearing. If we can arrive with something new against him it might keep him in prison where he belongs." Kakashi stood and held up a picture "We think this is the last victim of the Cerasus killer"

"Think?" Sakura asked

"She was never found, we didn't even know she was gone until five months ago."

"Five months ago?" Sakura asked "those killings were years ago."

"This is Dawn Harper" He turned to put the picture up on the board behind him before turning back to face everyone. "she and her boyfriend disappeared on the 29th of August 1998 after a huge argument with her parents. It was thought that they ran off together but her boyfriend returned home five months ago and claims she never went with him. This was just two days before we picked up Zabuza."

"But Zabuza liked us finding the bodies" Naruto said sounding confused, now he couldn't torment Hinata he was actually listening "he set it up so that we would find them."

"We think that we picked him up before he had a chance to set it up." Shikimaru explained "she fit's the profile perfectly, lived alone, had a boyfriend, right age, pink hair."

"What's the likelihood that this g-girl wasn't killed by Zabuza?" Hinata asked

"What do you mean?" Kakashi responded

"Well if she was killed by someone else they may have hoped that we would blame it on the serial killer. They may not have arranged her for discovery feeling they might not have got it right and just hoped we'd forget about it."

"A good point" Kakashi nodded thoughtfully "Ok so we interview the family and boyfriend, then we find old friends of hers and see what we've got. Hinata can you start working on that?"

"I'll start making phone calls" Hinata nodded

"Naruto you start looking into Zabuza's old contacts. Shikimaru start looking over the evidence, re-analyse everything, run all DNA and fingerprints through the system we may have some new hits.. Ino I need you to start checking up on Dawn and everything she did before she left, look at bank statements etc. etc. Sakura I want you to help Hinata eventually but first…." he sighed "I have a rather difficult task for you…"

"You want me to be there when you interview Zabuza" she guessed

"Not exactly, I'll do that but I will need to see his reaction to you, I want you to bring in a file for me when I require it."

"No problem" she tried to sound light but it was obvious that she didn't like the idea.

The minute everyone else had left the table Hinata turned to frown at Naruto "What do you think you're doing?" she hissed angrily

"Working" he responded simply "Why?" his expression changed and grinning he whispered maliciously "What do you want me to be doing?"

"Naruto…!" Hinata glanced around but everyone was busy "Please don't be mean."

"I'm not the one who wanted to keep this relationship a secret" he huffed "It's been a month Hinata!"

"I know… Please just a little more time?" she stood giving him a sweet pouting look that was almost impossible to resist so Naruto nodded dejectedly, Hinata's expression changed to a smile as he nodded but before she moved away she leant down and whispered "You can always put your hand on my leg at dinner though"

She was gone before Naruto could respond and the blonde smiled to himself as he watched her settle at her desk. It was amazing really, one month into their secret relationship and he was still crazy about her.

--

Walking through the prison corridor Kakashi felt the grim surroundings beginning to over come him. The clunk of the locked doors and gates were horrifying sounds even to him. Finally he arrived at his destination and one of the guards opened up the door, walking into the bland room he stood to face his old enemy Zabuza.

"Detective Kakashi long time no see" The man grinned at the masked man

"It's superintendent now"

"Well lucky you, no doubt my case had something to do with that promotion. No wonder you were trying so hard to pin it on me."

"I just wanted you to stop killing people. Nothing more."

"Yeah well it didn't happen did it?"

"I always found it oddly coincidental that the killings stopped after you got put away"

"Yeah well there are odd coincidences in life, they happen all the time. Now are you here for a reason?"

"Yeah" Kakashi nodded and pulled a photo out of his pocket "Do you know this girl?"

Zabuza leaned forward and looked at the picture, he looked at the photo "Nope never met her before. Why?"

"No reason. I need to know where you were on the night of the 29th of August 1998"

"You honestly expect me to remember that?"

"No but I want you to start thinking about it" Kakashi told him with a smile showing under his mask, this was the cue. The door opened and Sakura walked in

"Sir this just came for you" she walked directly over to Kakashi handing him something.

Zabuza's eyes immediately focussed on the pretty pink haired girl, his whole body tensed in the chair and he directed his attention solely on her.

As instructed Sakura didn't even look at the criminal watching her, she kept her eyes on Kakashi. The idea was that this way Zabuza would keep watching her hoping to catch her eye and Kakashi could watch him. After about thirty seconds Kakashi nodded

"Thank you Sakura"

"Sakura" he said her name and she instinctively turned to face him. He was staring at her with a look that really freaked her out. Turning away again she practically ran from the room. "Pretty girl" Zabuza told Kakashi "If I'm really as dangerous as you think I am you shouldn't have let me see her."

"You'll never get to touch her" Kakashi warned as he stood and turned to walk out.

"Wait a second Mr Superintendent" Zabuza teased "I know why you're here. I'm getting out soon and you're nervous. Don't worry Kakashi, it won't start again, even if I was the killer how stupid do you think I am?"

"I just want you to get what you deserve." Kakashi left the room with a heavy heart.

--

It had been a long day of chasing up leads and interviewing people. The team were tired, it was odd how exhausting looking through files and tracing phone numbers could be. It was even more exhausting if a lot of that information had been lost. Finally they all decided to call it a night and head off home. Ino was going home for dinner with her family, Shikimaru was going to watch his favourite TV show and Naruto and Hinata (unbeknownst to the others) had plans together, Kakashi had left an hour ago needing to do some paperwork. Only Sakura had nothing planned, she decided to stay in work a bit longer to work on the case.

"See you all tomorrow" Sakura waved them off smiling as she picked up a sheet of phone numbers.

Hinata and Naruto followed Ino and Shikimaru but before they left completely Hinata grabbed Naruto by the sleeve and held him back.

"What's up?" Naruto asked curiously

"I know we have p-plans tonight but… I'm going to offer Sakura my couch"

"Why?"

"Because this whole th-thing has her spooked" she explained gently looking pleadingly into his eyes "Zabuza creeped her out she'll want some company tonight."

"She seems fine" he muttered more than a little put out

"Didn't you notice how her hands were shaking? No? Look trust me on this she needs a shoulder." He still didn't look convinced and so Hinata placed a hand on his arm and squeezed gently "Hey… if she turns me down I'll call you. Ok?"

"Ok" he agreed. Hinata smiled and was about to go back when he grabbed her arm pulling her against him and pressing his lips on hers, he kissed her urgently as though he thought it would be the last time he ever saw her. When Naruto pulled away he grinned, her face was flushed and she didn't open her eyes for a few seconds.

"What was that for?" she asked breathlessly glancing around to make sure no one had seen

"There has to be a reason?"

"No but…. we're at work! Someone might have seen" she blushed even redder at the idea of someone catching them.

"Sorry! I dunno why I did it, you're just amazing, and I wanted to kiss you." he smiled as he stroked her cheek "You're just such a good person, you care about everyone."

"Yeah but don't worry I care about you the most" she pulled away and ran off back to Sakura leaving Naruto grinning widely.

Sakura sat at her desk running one hand through her hair. She hadn't liked seeing Zabuza, he had watched her in a way that made her feel incredibly uncomfortable. Just being in the same room as him made her anxious. She was angry with herself more than anything, she was a strong and brave member of the police force. How could some creep make her so agitated? And now he was going to get out, it made her even more nervous.

"Sakura?"

She jumped in her chair terrified "Oh my god" turning she smiled at Hinata as she breathed heavily trying to stop her heart from pounding "Don't do that!!"

"Sorry" smiling apologetically Hinata moved forward "I didn't mean to freak you out"

"Nah I'm fine" Sakura looked up with a grin that Hinata could tell was false "What did you want?"

"Well…" Hinata said lightly "I was wondering if you were busy tonight there's a new Chinese place near me I was going to try it out."

Sakura looked up at her colleague and smiled "You really can read minds can't you?"

"Just one of the perks of being a Hyuga princess." Hinata laughed "Come on I've got some cookie dough ice cream as well."

"You know what? One day Naruto will work out how special you are" Sakura laughed grabbing her handbag and following her out.

"Yeah" Hinata nodded guiltily "one day!"

--

Naruto was sitting with Ino and Shikimaru when Sakura and Hinata walked in together, the pale eyed girl gave her secret boyfriend a sweet smile before taking her bag and coat over to her desk.

"Morning" Sakura spoke loudly with a grin "Kakashi here yet?"

"Now that's a dumb question forehead girl" Ino laughed

"You promised not to call me that" Sakura spat back "Ino pig!"

"Troublesome girls" Shikimaru complained as he leaned back in his chair but his attention was caught by Naruto's happy smile as the two girls walked in. He couldn't help but wonder which one he was smiling for. Under half lidded eyes Shikimaru concentrated on Naruto

"Morning Hinata-chan" Naruto turned to face her

"Good morning Naruto-kun" Hinata moved and sat down next to Naruto.

Ino and Sakura were arguing bitchily and as a result didn't notice Hinata's lack of stutter around Naruto. Shikimaru however **had **noticed. He had also noticed that over the last four weeks she was blushing less and her stutter had been getting rarer. Both Naruto and Hinata had one hand on the table and their other hands… Shikimaru dropped his pencil and bent down to pick it up… their other hands were under the table and their fingers were linked loosely together. Well that was interesting!

"Sorry I'm late" Kakashi announced "stray cow on the lines about an hour ago"

"Liar" Sakura and Ino muttered simultaneously.

"Right what have we got?"

Shikimaru spoke first, "There's nothing new on my side, unless we find another scene to process or new evidence there's nothing for me to do."

"Right… Ino?"

"We know that she argued with her boyfriend at last minute, her friends confirm that they were having a tough time, arguing a lot and they wouldn't have been surprised if she decided not to go. The only problem here appears to be that she disappeared but there was no evidence of a struggle. It could be that she didn't put up a big fight in the house or she was already only semiconscious somehow when she was grabbed but it seems unlikely. She argued with her boyfriend early morning nobody saw her the rest of the day so we don't even know when she disappeared. Sorry."

"Naruto?"

"I checked his contacts and got nothing, no one at the time and most of his contacts are either dead or in jail. The only two I got that seemed suspicious were Haku, strange guy very effeminate and…." Naruto looked down at his noted "Gato we can interview them, dunno what we'll get"

"Sakura and Hinata?"

"Nothing much just a load of old addresses but most of the lists are old. This was a ling time before everything went technical and it's a long paper trail." Sakura answered "Right Hinata?"

"Yeah but we have two places that weren't discovered before, we're gonna go check em out today"

"Excellent…" Kakashi was cut of by the phone ringing, he reached over and picked up the receiver "Cold Case Squad, Kakashi speaking… You gotta be kidding me!" everyone was surprised wondering what had got their boss so angry "When did this happen?…. How long have we got?…. Well… thanks for the warning" Kakashi slammed the phone down swearing profusely.

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked curiously

"Head of CID has taken an interest in the case"

"Meaning?" Shikimaru urged

"Meaning Tsunade's on her way down and she's bringing her two best detectives with her. She's planning on running things I think. Ok everyone from now on we have to watch what we do, make sure everything is done by the book!"

--

No one knew how old Tsunade really was. Given her position within the force she had to be in her late forties but she did look a lot younger. She was an attractive woman and she strode through the corridors with an imposing air that made the cold case team feel very insignificant.

Following behind the blonde woman were two of the most well known detectives in the CID force. Uchiha Sasuke and Rock Lee.

The two detectives were known to be as different as two people could possibly be, Lee was exuberant and dedicated, Sasuke was cold and was constantly being investigated by internal affairs.

"Kakashi" The honey blonde haired woman entered the room and greeted the superintendent with a curt nod

"Tsunade, nice to have you down here. Sasuke, Lee" he nodded politely to the others "This is my team. Shikimaru head of Forensics, Naruto, Ino and Sakura my detectives and this is detective Hinata also our psychological profiler"

"So you're a doctor, and a detective?" Tsunade asked a little sardonically

"I'm a quick learner" Hinata replied staring her down and surprising her fellow workers with her bravery.

"Ok" Kakashi brought attention back to himself smiling lightly under his mask "Well Sakura and Ino can" he was about to say show the three newcomers the ropes but the way the two girls were drooling over Sasuke and the dreamy expression Lee got as he stared at Sakura he quickly changed his mind "you two can go to those properties with Shikimaru see what you can find. Naruto fill the newcomers in on what going on. Hinata I want you to find Zabuza's old contacts. See if he ever talked about his dealings before he went inside. Um..." he looked down at a piece of paper

"Haku and Gato?" Naruto asked

"Yeah"

"I'm already on it they're due in today Gato is bringing someone with him…" Naruto picked up a sheet of paper "Kiba Inuzuka, he's his lawyer"

"Kiba Inuzuka? A lawyer?" Hinata asked smiling widely "Are you sure?"

"Uh yeah" Naruto nodded "you know him?"

"I think so… Once upon a time" Hinata shrugged "this could be interesting"

--

Hinata had just finished interviewing Haku, a strangely quiet young man who refused to say anything against Zabuza. Just from his interview she could tell there was a long history between the two men, what it was she new she would need to look into. She could only hope that Gato would be more forthcoming. She decided to wear tinted glasses while conducting this interview, the last thing she wanted was for Kiba to recognise her and make the interview awkward

She took a deep breath before walking into the interview room, she smiled at them both and sat down to ask questions. Surprisingly her childhood friend Kiba was a good lawyer, quiet, logical, calm, but passionate about his job, everything you needed when facing tough questions.

Gato was out of the interview room quickly and Hinata kept Shino back a moment to 'ask him a few questions'

"What can I help you with? You do know that anything my client or clients contacts have told me is all strictly confidential" Kiba asked concentrating on the papers he was carrying

"I wanted to ask you about an old friend of yours, she's around here"

"Who?" Kiba asked still not really listening

"Hinata Nakagawa"

"Hinata?" Kiba stopped looking up and laughing "wow I haven't heard from her in ages, she's here? Is she in trouble? Cos if she is…!"

"She works here" Hinata told him studying the floor as the two of them walked along

"Hina-chan's a cop?" He stuffed his papers into his briefcase laughing loudly "No way! What does she do when she needs to arrest someone? Ask them to put the cuffs on themselves?"

"People change you know" Hinata told him looking at him properly. They stared at each other, Hinata peeping over her glasses a shy smile on her face.

"No way!" Kiba stared at her "You said you're name was… Hyuga!" he slapped his forehead with his hand "Of course! How come you didn't say something sooner?"

"I didn't want to compromise the interview at all… It's so good to see you!"

"Look at you" Kiba stood back amazed "You grew up"

"We both did… this is so weird… you're a lawyer!"

"You're a cop!"

"I know! If you'd asked people that knew us growing up they would have said we were headed for the other side of the law!" Hinata told him laughing

"We'll maybe me and Shino but you were the good one!"

"Even the time we got caught stealing cigarettes?"

"Oh man I had totally forgot about that… your mum went crazy, how old were we?"

"Thirteen" she laughed "I can't believe we thought we'd get away with it, are you still in touch with Shino?"

"Sure am! We went to law school together"

"He's a lawyer too?" Hinata sighed and shook her head "Man! I wish I'd tried to get in touch with you two when I broke away from my family. I just felt… awkward."

"It's ok" Kiba took her hand and smiled at her "Hey I'm meeting with Shino tonight you wanna come?"

"Uh… I have plans… with someone and I cancelled on him last night so…"

"A him?" Kiba teased "Well I can't wait until I get to meet him!"

"You'll have to, it's kind of… low key right now."

"Is he married? Cos if some guy is messing you around…!"

"No, he's a good man it's just me wanting things to be kept quiet." Hinata shrugged blushing

"Oh how I've missed that blush, but the stutter's gone!" Kiba teased "Well I'm having a family thing this weekend, you wanna come? Shino and my sister would love to see you, as would Akamaru!"

"Oh how is Akamaru?" Hinata laughed "I wasn't sure if he'd still be around"

"That breed lives for a long time. He's huge, as big as me"

"Really? I remember when he used to sit on your head." Hinata laughed reminiscently "It would be good to see everyone again!"

"You could bring your boyfriend" he continued in a wheedling tone "Come on Hina-chan… Please??"

--

"I swear if that guy says the word youth one more time I'm gonna cry!" Naruto whispered to Hinata as they left work that evening

It had been frustrating, a whole day of work and nothing to show for it. Naruto couldn't quite tell where he was, Lee was far too excitable and more dedicated than he could believe. Sasuke on the other hand was so reserved that conversation was completely one sided. Sakura and Ino had checked out the properties but found nothing new, Hinata may have been thrilled with her reunion with her old friend but her interviews had revealed nothing.

They were getting nowhere.

--

"It's not a good idea Zabuza" Haku muttered looking down at the floor. It was visitors day and he was sitting in a room surrounded by criminals. He hated it here but he knew that his master and father figure couldn't survive if he was locked away much longer. He needed to get the parole, he needed to get out.

"Haku listen to me" Zabuza edged closer to his protégé smiling "They're trying to get me for the murders… you know they are. All we need is a new disappearance. I can tell you exactly what to do and I know exactly who you should take."

"I'm not sure I can"

"You'd be doing it for me" Zabuza coaxed "You once said you'd do anything for me."

Haku stared at the man, it was true, he would do anything for him. Slowly he removed his gaze from Zabuza and stared at the floor nodding.

--

Early morning inthe office and Naruto sat with Sasuke, there was a dull and awkward silence between the two of them. Sasuke didn't like working with people, in fact he was known for refusing to work with a partner. Naruto gave the dark haired man a speculative look. Everyone knew the rumours about Sasuke, that he had joined the police force to track down his older brother Itachi. Itachi Uchiha was the number one suspect for the murder of his and Sasuke's parents. Still you'd think the guy was the only person to ever lose someone the way he acted about it.

Naruto was no stranger to loss and loneliness, his parents had died when he was a kid and he'd had the kind of upbringing that most people suspected would turn him into a criminal. As it was Naruto had been determined to earn respect and trust and as far as he was concerned no one deserved trust and respect more than a police officer.

"You want something?" Sasuke asked his voice cold

Grinning widely Naruto shook his head "No"

"Then why are you staring at me?"

"No real reason" Naruto shrugged and placed his hands behind his head "I was just wondering why you and Lee were put on this case"

"What do you mean?"

"Well it's quite simple really" Naruto suddenly sat forward placing his elbows on the desk and resting his head on his hands as he stared directly at Sasuke "This case is something Kakashi really wants to crack, it's a problem from his youth and he really want's to nail this guy. Tsunade needs to keep an eye on us because she suspects that Kakashi will do anything to get a conviction and she knows we'd back him up whatever the issue. So she sent you two down here to make sure we behave"

Surprised Sasuke raised one eyebrow, he had only spent one day with Naruto so far and the mans jokey behaviour had led him to come to the conclusion that Naruto was rather dumb. It seemed odd that the blonde had picked up on the situation so easily.

"I'm also wondering why you and Lee specifically" Naruto leaned back in his chair again the serious expression never leaving his face "No offence but you two are complete polar opposites"

"I don't find that offensive. I think it's more complimentary" one corner of Sasuke's mouth twitched as he responded

"So…? Why did she send you two down? There has to be a reason"

Sasuke paused considering his answer before leaning forward "I'm sure you've seen the similarities so when I say that Lee is the protégé of Guy…"

"I wondered if they were related actually"

"I don't know" Sasuke shrugged carelessly "anyway it's a known fact that Guy and Kakashi have a rivalry so Lee was sent here because she thinks he'll have no problem reporting Kakashi if he does anything wrong."

"And you?"

"I'm not wanted anywhere else right now" Sasuke grunted and pursed his lips "I recently worked undercover for a human trafficking ring run by Orochimaru… you've heard of him right?"

"Who hasn't" Naruto responded honestly

"Well I helped shut some of it down, but there have been some rumours that I was dirty. Took bribes, etc etc."

"I see, did you?"

"Talk about blunt!" Sasuke smirked "You know… no ones ever asked me that outright before."

"I like to get to the point" Naruto shrugged and watched the stoic man carefully "Well?"

There was a long silence finally Sasuke shook his head "No… I won't say I wasn't tempted by the money but the things they were doing…" for a split second there was a slight show of emotion on Sasuke's face but it was gone so quickly that Naruto wasn't even sure he had seen it right, it looked like distaste "I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if I had turned. So that's probably why I'm here"

Naruto nodded understandingly, the two sat there with a new understanding between them, Sasuke hadn't changed exactly but he was a little more willing to work with Naruto who had proven himself not to be as dumb as he seemed.

Soon the office began to fill up as Lee, Ino, Hinata and Shikimaru arrived at the office. There was light conversation going on in which Sasuke took no part but he did accept Hinata's offer of coffee a big step for him!

It was when Kakashi arrived at the office that Ino and Hinata began to worry about the third female from the office. The blonde girl picked up the phone and dialled Sakura's home number while Hinata tried her cell phone.

"Is she answering?" Hinata asked Ino as she gave up after being sent to voicemail for the second time

"Nothing! Guys Sakura's not answering her phone" Ino replaced the receiver in it's cradle and turned to face the team "I'm really worried she never misses work."

"Well she's probably just running late" Kakashi shrugged

"She's not you" Ino spat at him angrily

"Traffic?" Lee asked

"She gets the same train as me normally" Hinata told him "Even if she missed the first one there's one every ten minutes and she ought to answer her cell phone."

"Maybe she stayed at a friends" Naruto suggested

"No" Hinata shook her head "I spoke to her last night and she was heading straight home." The two women looked at each other and simultaneously leapt to their feet, Ino grabbed her bag and together they headed to the door.

"Where are you two going?" Kakashi asked not really grasping the situation.

Ino turned back quickly "I've known Sakura since we were kids, she never missed a day of school and she'd never miss a day of work. She wouldn't just do this. Something happened." with that she opened the door and the two women left.

--

The apartment was a mess, whoever had taken Sakura had grabbed her while she cooking but it was obvious she had put up a fight. Pasta was strewn across the floor and a pan of tomato sauce lay on it's side on the counter top. Three mugs lay on the floor and there was blood on the cracked china and one of the glass fronted kitchen cabinets was cracked.

The two women looked at the chaos with sorrow in their hearts.

Noticing one of Sakura's favourite pictures hanging lopsidedly on the wall Ino moved forward to straighten it but Hinata grabbed her hand warningly.

"We can't touch anything" she told the blonde who nodded dazedly, Hinata pulled out her phone and dialled a number after a few minutes the other end picked up "Shikimaru?"

"_What's wrong Hinata?" _The voice on the other end had a more alert edge to it than normal.

"We were right, Ino and I" Hinata said sadly "we need you to get to Sakura's to process the scene. We're going to start interviewing her neighbours, see if any of them heard or saw anything"

"_I'm on my way"_

After hanging up Shikimaru sighed heavily

"What's happened?" Kakashi was behind him before he even heard him enter the lab

"Sakura's gone" Shikimaru picked up a large plastic box that he'd had ready on the side ever sine Hinata and Ino had left. "From Hinata's tone it doesn't look good."

--

Sitting up in her chair Sakura groaned, her head was pounding, it felt like it normally did after a night out with Ino and Hinata. What had happened last night? She didn't remember going out with her friends and if she had done that Hinata normally made sure that she ended up in bed somewhere safe.

She shifted uncomfortably and that was when she noticed her hands were trapped.

Opening her eyes she looked around she had no clue where she was

She tried to say something but her mouth was covered.

Closing her eyes again she tried to remember what had happened…

She could remember cooking her dinner, she had been playing her music pretty loud, she remembered hearing something behind her but assuming it was the door. With her music so loud she had been waiting for one of her neighbours to complain.

She had turned off the cooker and was lifting the pasta off the stove when suddenly someone grabbed her from behind.

Her mind was filled with panic as she dropped the pan and tried to fight with the person holding her. She had tripped forward almost landing on the hot stove, instead her hands had landed on the counters on either side and she had spilled her sauce over her hand burning it a slightly.

Using the counters to push off from she managed to throw herself and her attacker back crashing into the cabinets on the other side of the kitchen.

She remembered hearing someone swear as things clattered to the ground but before she could fight anymore she was thrown roughly to the side.

Her head hit the wall and then she remembered nothing.

"This is a bad idea"

She stopped trying to remember more when a deep familiar voice grabbed her attention

"Look you and I need him out of there" the other voice was familiar too! "I'm doing it all perfectly."

"That is not the issue I have with this" the deeper voice sounded angrily "you could have taken any girl, she's a cop. If you get caught do you know what the sentence will be for killing a cop?"

"No"

"Life without parole you'll go down and it'll put Zabuza under the same suspicion"

"I'll just have to make sure I don't get caught. She's the only witness and this time tomorrow she'll be dead"

Fear gripped Sakura's heart… this was bad!

--

"What have we got?"

"Two blood types at the scene, one's Sakura but we're not sure on the other. Only one set of prints but everyone knows to wear gloves these days so that's not exactly a big deal." Shikimaru answered quietly

"No one saw or heard anything but apparently Sakura had her music on pretty loud last night so the neighbours aren't surprised they didn't hear a struggle." Ino spoke sadly as she flipped through the notes she had made during questioning.

"What do we think?"

There was silence for a while.

It was a big surprise that Sasuke was the first to speak "I think Haku may be trying to prove that Zabuza couldn't be the killer" he explained looking contemplative "It's likely that by taking Sakura he's trying to make sure we can't ever blame this on Zabuza"

"Haku doesn't look strong enough" Lee spoke decidedly "Sakura is too full of you..."

"He's stronger than he looks" Naruto cut him off before he said the word youth "Haku has exstensive knowledge of Martial Arts and was a lightweight boxer it's in his file."

"Yeah but why?" Ino asked "and why use Sakura specifically?"

"Well I'm not sure" Hinata said thoughtfully "but we know Zabuza used to protect Haku on the streets growing up, we also know that Haku only has Zabuza, no one else. Haku's textbook."

"Textbook?"

"Classic case of dependence, he has this loyalty to our criminal that will surpass all his own better judgement and morals. And… I think Sakura was taken because despite everything what Zabuza really wants is to hurt Kakashi. You were the one who saw what he was, you're Sherlock to his Moriarty. Of course Sherlock and Moriarty were only in two books together..."

"But how would he know about Sakura?" Naruto asked quickly knowing that Hinata could accidnelty get off topic and talk about something like that for a while

"When he and Haku last spoke at visiting time he may have told Haku about Sakura. There aren't many pink haired, green eyed girls on the force. He had her name as well… it wouldn't have been hard to find her." Hinata held something up for them to see "Haku's visited Zabuza since you interviewed him Kakashi I guess he told him where to look"

"Well where do **we **start looking??" Naruto asked, it was obvious to everyone that he was desperate to do something

"Shikimaru?" Kakashi turned to his trusted right hand man for advice

"Naruto and Sasuke get to Haku's home search for evidence, don't worry about a warrant right now Sakura is our main concern agreed?"

"Definitely!" Lee nodded enthusiastically while Sasuke gave a small nod to show he was willing to go along with it.

"You'll work with Naruto Sasuke?" Kakashi was surprised, he knew the mans reputation as a loner who refused to even consider working with people "no arguments?"

Sasuke merely gave Kakashi a look that could freeze mercury and the man decided to let the matter drop

"You two be careful though" Hinata told them focussing on Naruto a little more than Sasuke "If I've read him properly Haku will be fight or flight!"

"Meaning?" Sasuke asked cocking his head to one side

"Meaning when you guys arrive he'll do one of two things, he'll either fight to the death or blindly make a break for it. Either way it'll be dangerous."

"Lets get Gato in here for questioning, Hinata can do that with Kakashi. Lee and Ino start looking into Haku's past. Look for anywhere he might have taken her or the other girls."

"Lets go" Naruto jumped up and together he and Sasuke ran for the door.

--

Once again Gato had brought along two lawyers this time, he refused to answer most of the questions frustrating Lee and Kakashi who were interviewing him. There was an annoyingly smug smile on the businessman's face that seemed to show that he knew something despite his arguments to the contrary. After a long interview they had to let him go and he left with a swagger that almost drove Ino to hit him.

The lawyers, Shino and Kiba however remained behind in the interview room packing up their papers, Hinata saw her chance and before they lefty she dashed into the room surprising her colleagues as she addressed the two men saying.

"Kiba, Shino if you know where she could be and aren't telling us I swear to god I'll kick your asses!"

"Hinata" Kakashi hissed warningly but Shino shrugged off the comment.

"It's OK Superintendent… It's good to see you too Hinata"

"Shino a friend of mine is in grave danger do I look like I have time for chit chat?"

"I guess not. Hina-chan I'm sorry but anything we know would be protected by lawyer client confidentiality" Kiba looked angry as he responded but Hinata knew that his anger was at his situation not her.

"You gotta be kidding me" Ino had joined them in the room now and she glared at the man who stared at her from behind dark sunglasses "Someone is going to die and you're hiding behind some stupid rule?"

"Please Kiba-kun Shino-kun" Hinata begged "He's got my friend, if you know anything…"

"Like we said, it's protected by lawyer client confidentiality" Shino told her regretfully while Kiba just stood at his side silent and apologetic.

"Meaning you do know something" Ino accused

"We have to go" Shino shrugged but he was staring directly at Hinata as he said "Kiba… I hope we haven't forgotten anything"

This seemed to signal something to the dejected lawyer and Kiba immediately brightened up "I'll check my wallet" he put down his case and checked his wallet, then two men turned and left leaving Kiba's case on the floor "Hey Hinata" Kiba called as they walked through the door

"Yes?" Hinata asked suspiciously

"Don't forget we expect to see you for Akamarus birthday" and with that they left.

"What was that about?" Lee asked staring after them confused

"Simple" Hinata ran around the desk and picked up Kiba's case "Akamaru's birthday was the 30th of July so… 307" she spun the little dials on Kibas combination lock and the briefcase opened up.

"What have we got?" Kakashi moved around the table to her side, she pulled out a form with something highlighted on it

"Haku is working at a construction site run by Gato" Hinata muttered holding up the form

"That means nothing" Ino said exasperated

"No…except the site was shut down two days ago…" Hinata looked up at them smiling "If he's taken Sakura anywhere he's taken her there"

"I'll call Sasuke and Naruto" Kakashi spoke urgently grabbing his phone "What's the address?"

--

The car pulled up at a large half finished apartment building, Sasuke switched off the engine and climbed out followed by Naruto.

"Ok we know this guy is probably armed and Hinata says if he fails in his plan he'll be very unstable so we better be careful" Naruto muttered giving the building a thorough once over. Sasuke said nothing merely nodding before edging carefully towards the door.

The two men walked into the building and looked around, they moved over to doorways without doors checking the rooms behind.

"Here" Sasuke hissed getting Naruto's attention, the blonde made his way over to join Sasuke by the stairs. There were a few drops of blood on the third step. The two men nodded to each other before starting to climb. They made their way up three flights and were about to continue on when they heard a noise.

Both men froze, below them they could hear someone entering the building.

"Haku?" the yell was familiar, in fact Naruto could have sworn that it was Gato.

Above them they heard a voice call "I'm coming down!"

Sasuke grabbed Naruto by the collar and dragged him out of the way, they managed to get into a room just off the stairwell before Haku made his way down from a few floors up. As soon as he was out of the way they continued on their ascent

As soon as they reached the floor Haku had come from Naruto began looking around, within seconds he found the right room.

"Sakura" he couldn't help but say her name as he ran across the floor.

The pink haired girl was tied to a chair in the centre of the grey unfinished rooms, her head hung forward and she was completely still.

"Oh god" Naruto dropped to his knees in front of her lifting her head up and trying to get her to wake up "Sakura… look at me…"

Sasuke stood behind her, he pulled a knife from his pocket and sliced through the ropes binding Sakura to the chair.

"Sakura?" Naruto raised a hand to her throat feeling for a pulse "C'mon Haruno don't do this to me."

"N-Naruto?" Sakura's expression was confused as her eyes fluttered open and she stared blearily at him

"Hey" Naruto grinned at her "don't worry me like that!"

"She ok?" Sasuke asked, it still seemed odd to Naruto that he could ask a such a concerned question while his voice was as emotionless as ever. He shrugged it off.

"I think she'll be alright… we have to get her out of here" Naruto lifted Sakura up off the chair as he said this holding her close. Sakura was still very drowsy but she wound her arms around Naruto's neck mumbling something about needing a drink.

"Yeah" Sasuke moved back to the stairwell, Haku and Gato were on their way up, he gestured to Naruto to move out the way and the blonde nodded moving to the other side of the room. Standing just out of sight Sasuke waited for the two men to re-enter the room. Unfortunately Gato came on first so when Sasuke grabbed him wrenching his arm back Haku took the opportunity to run. Gato was soon cuffed to the piping by the door and Sasuke chased after Haku.

As Sasuke arrived in the stairway a nasty sight met his eyes, Haku lay two floors down his head twisted in a way that was not normally humanly possible. Shikimaru later said that it was obvious from the blood spatter that in his rush to get away the young man had tripped and fallen quite some distance. Hinata had been right about he flight or fight theory.

--

The case was wrapped up quite quickly after that. In order to protect himself Gato had been quite willing to testify against Zabuza. Once Zabuza learnt of Haku's death he admitted to the deaths anyway, the guilt over his student was apparently more than he could bear.

Sakura hadn't been badly hurt all things considered but when the doctors requested that she stay with a friend she moved in with Ino for a few days. it was soon decided that it was healthier for both girls if they didn't live together as they drove each other crazy!

Lee and Sasuke stayed to finish the paperwork but to Sakura and Ino's immense disappointment neither had any plans to stick around.

"Thanks for your help." Naruto spoke evenly as he looked at Sasuke "If you ever need a favour…" he let the sentence hang but Sasuke understood

"I'll remember that" the Uchiha nodded and the two men smiled at each other, one smile was barely visible while the other was wide but they had obviously reached an understanding. A door opened and Naruto smiled at his girlfriend as she walked towards them

"Hey Hinata-chan"

"Hello Naruto-kun, Sasuke-san" she stopped at their side "Kakashi says we can all get going, I guess this is goodbye, Sasuke-san. It was nice meeting you. Maybe we'll work together one day"

"Maybe! I better get off, it was nice to meet you both" Sasuke nodded politely smiling at the young couple in front of him, he was walking away when he stopped turning back to face them "you can drop the 'san' you know. It's just Sasuke" he was gone before either of them could respond but he could guess that they were grinning like idiots at his comment.

Well he was half right, Naruto had a wide smile in his face while Hinata just looked admiringly at her boyfriend.

"What?" Naruto asked as he looked at the Hyuga girls caring expression

"I just think you did well with Sasuke, he hasn't ever been willing to work with a partner and thanks to you he broke that rule"

"Well I'm just an amazing guy" Naruto said with a laugh

"Exactly what I was thinking" glancing around to make sure no one was nearby Hinata stood up on her toes and kissed him on the mouth "Are we still on for dinner?"

"Definitely!" Naruto grinned "Shall I leave first? You can follow in a few minutes"

Pleased that he was still willing to keep their relationship a secret Hinata nodded happily. She knew he didn't like this but he was willing to make the sacrifice for her and it made her love him even more.

* * *

Please R&R


	3. Christmasfluff

Ok in honour of Christmas (my favourite holiday) I wrote this dumb little chapter, it's pure fluff with no story line or anything which is very unusual for me!

I do not own Naruto!!

My little brother however (courtesy of me) owns almost the entire first series (pre time skip) manga, Naruto play station 2 game, a DVD and will be receiving a set of forehead protector's on Christmas day.

(Don't you all wish you had a sister like me this Christmas!!)

* * *

Inside his apartment Naruto looked around at the mediocre Christmas decorations he had put up, he wasn't a fan of Christmas and until he had joined the cold case squad he had worked all through the holidays. These days though he wasn't going to be patrolling the streets, or manning the station while families sat together opening gifts he would be here. Alone.

He wouldn't be having turkey, stuffing, or roast potatoes he'd got a couple of frozen pizza's at the supermarket and threw them into the freezer to have tomorrow. Alone.

He'd ordered a ton of Chinese food for tonight and he's watch those crappy Christmas shows that were on every year while eating it. Alone.

God he hated that word… Alone.

That had been the word that defined his life until recently, Alone.

Dropping down on his couch he wondered if he could get away with what he normally did on this holiday (drinking himself into a stupor tonight and then sleeping the day away on the 25th) but he knew he couldn't. Hinata had promised to call him on Christmas day so they could wish each other a merry Christmas.

Naruto smiled to himself as he thought about his girlfriend, he had desperately wanted to ask her to share this holiday with him but he knew she went away with her family. It was the one time of year her family welcomed her back so he couldn't ruin it for her.

There was a knock at his door and Naruto picked up his wallet and went to open the door for his dinner.

It wasn't his Chinese food

"Hinata?" Naruto stared confusedly at the young woman standing at his door holding a case in one hand

"My plane got snowed in" she told him smiling shyly placing her luggage on the ground momentarily

Naruto looked over her shoulder at the dark but cloudless sky "It's not snowing"

"Really?" Hinata feigned astonishment and glanced behind her "My mistake…well I've missed the plane for sure now" she grinned at him "Do you know somewhere I could crash for Christmas?"

"I… Hinata I…" Naruto stopped trying to speak and just wrapped his arms around her holding her tight "thank you" he whispered kissing the top of her head gently

"What for?" Hinata asked leaning back in his arms and looking at him "Naruto I had a choice between being with you and having fun or being with my family, suffering long awkward silences, arguments, listening to everyone praise my little sister and great aunt Mai drinking all the sherry and telling me how disappointed they all were when my mum and dad got married and divorced. I think I made the right choice"

"But at home you'd have had good food and great presents…"

"Uzumaki?" A voice intruded on their conversation and a man stood holding a large carrier bag filled with Chinese food

"Yeah thanks" Naruto handed over some cash and took the bag "keep the change"

"Thank you sir, happy Christmas" he nodded to them both politely

"Happy Christmas" Hinata nodded back before peeking in the bag "What were you saying about good food?"

Naruto chuckled "Ok so I have Chinese tonight but tomorrow I'm just having pizza, and I…."

"Naruto" Hinata placed a finger on his lips smiling at him "I'd be happier eating beans on toast with you than eating in the best gourmet restaurant with my family. Now come on…" Hinata took the bag of food from him, grabbed the handle of her case and walked easily into his apartment.

Naruto followed her in smiling all the way incredibly glad that he had made some effort in honour of the holidays to tidy and decorate his home.

--

"I'm stuffed" Hinata moaned as she leaned forward on the couch placing her plate on Naruto's coffee table before leaning back easily.

"Me too" Naruto laughed as he pulled her into his arms, "I'm so comfortable I could sleep right here"

"Me too" Hinata snuggled into his arms lifting up her lips to kiss him.

They stayed like that for some time just staying in their own little world. After a while Naruto felt himself dozing slipping in and out of consciousness. "We ought to move to somewhere else before we fall asleep" Naruto murmured into Hinata's hair

"I want to sleep with you" Hinata moaned making Naruto smile and he hugged her tighter

"And you can but if we sleep here we'll fall off in the night"

"Good point" Hinata nodded and lazily pulled herself up to sit stretching as she did so.

"Shall we do the washing up now or leave it until tomorrow?" As he asked this Naruto took Hinata's hand and linked her fingers with his.

"Tomorrow" Hinata decided smiling lazily at him "Wait! What's the time?"

"Almost midnight" Naruto told her with a shrug. They'd spent the evening watching TV and slowly making their way through the food, it had been so easy for the two of them to sit together talking and laughing.

"Then wait before we go anywhere" Hinata watched the clock and as the hands moved into position, finally the clock read midnight and Hinata turned to her boyfriend smiling "Happy Christmas Naruto-kun"

"You know what?" Naruto asked lifting a hand up to stroke her cheek "I think this year it will be."

--

Christmas day.

The day Naruto had dreaded since he was 10.

And he had the biggest smile on his face.

He watched Hinata as she walked around the kitchen in his shirt making coffee. She poured two mugs of the aromatic dark liquid and turned around.

"Stop smiling" Hinata told him accusingly

"Sorry I can't, this morning was amazing" he grinned even wider as she childishly stuck her tongue out at her before handing him his drink. She was about to sit down in the chair next to his but he quickly pulled her into his lap.

"Naruto I almost spilled my…" She was cut off by his lips on hers, she smiled as he kissed her relaxing against him completely. Suddenly he pulled back, she pouted but his serious expression made her suddenly concerned "What? What's wrong?"

"That's just it, nothings wrong, you're here. You're mine, I woke up and you were there" he took her drink out of her hands and put both drinks down on the table as he said this. "It's all perfect"

Hinata linked her fingers with his smiling "Cheesy" she told him wishing his serious look would go away, she had never seen him look so solemn before. "Everything right here right now is such a cliché"

"I like Clichés" He stared into her eyes keeping his face completely humourless for once " and… I **love **you"

"Naruto…" Now she understood why he was being so different, tears pricked her eyes and she smiled "I love you too"

They smiled at each other, he kissed her hand, then he kissed her wrist, he continued kissing her moving up the arm, to her shoulder, her neck finally reaching her lips with a passionate kiss that made Hinata's bones turn to jelly.

It was the first Christmas that Hinata had enjoyed in years, she hadn't been lying when she spoke about her miserable family situation. Her family didn't like her and to be totally honest she didn't like them. She had been cut off from them a few years ago when she had become a police officer. They had hoped she would become head of the family business but she had no interest in hotels, casinos, day spa's or any other part of the tourism industry and that was how her family had made their money. Her parents had gotten divorced soon after her birth and it had been just her and her mother for the first thirteen years of her life. When her mother had been alive it had been tough, they never had enough money but they had been happy. This was the first time in a long time that she had been happy on the 25th of December.

It was the best Christmas ever Naruto decided. Ever since he was ten he had been shunted from care home to care home and he had never enjoyed the Christmas parties in those places. The older kids would steal the best presents and food he'd just sit a corner pretend not to care. Now he had the most beautiful girl in the world in his arms, she had made no complaint to the 'You're mine' comment, she had just said she loved him and they were kissing. They pulled apart both panting for air, he grinned and was about to move in again when Hinata got off his lap, he momentarily sulked but then Hinata kept her hand in his and pulled him off the chair leading him back into the bedroom.

Oh yeah! Definitely the best Christmas ever!

* * *

Happy Christmas to you all. I appreciate my readers and reviewers and I hope you all have a wonderful holiday. For the record I am Christian and wish all my friends a happy Christmas even if they do not celebrate or believe in it themselves. They all appreciate it in the spirit in which I say it and it is with love and a real wish for all to experience joy at this time.

Please R&R


	4. Missing Mai

This one comes from a show called Jonathan Creek, a great show, the story I'm doing is from one of the worse episodes but I've cut out the pointless bits and added more to the story. Just so you know this is set in England otherwise the Edwardian houses and so forth wouldn't make much sense.

I do not own Naruto or Jonathon Creek

* * *

A shy and somewhat claustrophobic young woman stood looking nervously around her. She was quite obviously looking for someone in the crowded pub but she was small and couldn't see over the people that were crowded in the bar.

"Hinata!"

Turning the dark haired woman was relieved to see her friend waving to her from a nearby table. Squeezing through the crowds and timidly asking people to excuse her Hinata managed to get to the table.

"Mai! You look fantastic" the two girls embraced happily, Mai was a small slight blonde with a flair for fashion. It had been a long time since the two girls had met up and they were very happy to see each other again.

"Hey Hina man this place is buzzin' I have no idea it would be so full"

"Neither did I" Hinata admitted sitting down "I doubt I could get to the bar any time soon."

"Good thing I got a bowl of chips for us to share and an orange juoce for you, we can't have you drinking because…"

"Because?" Hinata asked feeling nervous

"We just got invited to this amazing party and I have already been drinking so you need to drive us, it's really out of the way so a taxi would cost a fortune"

"I let Naruto borrow my car" Hinata smiled at her friend apologetically "He's having to go out of town this weekend and I didn't think I'd be driving tonight"

"Well you can drive mine" Mai offered smiling "come on Hina, there'll be loads of talent there"

"Um Hello! I already have a boyfriend" Hinata reminded her friend

"I know, he has your nice car so now we have to drive my old rust bucket"

"Well if you were more sensible and you saved money instead of…"

"Yeah yeah" Mai waved a hand "you can lecture me in the car mum, come on Hina… please?"

"Fine" Hinata took some chips from her friend's plate "but next time we go out you're buying me a drink and I mean an alcoholic one!"

--

Half an hour later, miles from anywhere civilised Hinata stood out in the pouring rain trying to change the tyre on her friends car in the pitch black night. It really bugged her that Mai wasn't going to get out and help her but it was also a very predictable situation. Hinata knew more about cars than her friend did and truth be told Hinata had yet to see her friend ever do a days work.

Finally Hinata had the tyre off, opening up the back of the car and shining in the torch Hinata did something that she rarely did.

The last time she had done this was when Sakura had been kidnapped.

Hinata swore.

Marching around to the front seat again Hinata threw open the door and sat down heavily in the drivers seat.

"Are we ready to go?" Mai asked

"No Mai we are not ready to go" Hinata turned to glare at her friend with an icy look that could scare anyone "We are not ready to go because you do not have a fucking spare tyre!"

"Oh," lowering herself into her seat Mai bit her lower lip "sorry?"

"Sorry? Mai we are stuck in the middle of nowhere, in the worst weather I think we've had all year" Hinata checked her phone "with no cell phone reception, no spare wheel and it's all your fault!"

Thumping her hand on the steering wheel Hinata gave an exasperated sigh trying to calm herself down. After all she had to sit in this car with her friend until the rain stopped, the last thing they needed was to have a bitch fight. She was just beginning to get a handle on her emotions when Mai sat up pointing

"Look"

Making it's way down the road towards them were a pair of lights, it looked to be headlights belonging to a car, Mai's face lit up into a grin but unlike her friend Hinata's sensible policewomen side kicked in and she tensed up.

Two girls in the middle of nowhere with no one knowing they were there made for easy prey. The lights stopped and Hinata turned to her friend "Listen! Don't tell him we're lost, or that we haven't phoned anyone and we do not go with him unless absolutely necessary. Got it?"

"Yeah, yeah, Got it!" Mai waved a hand dismissively.

Slowly Hinata rolled down her window.

"Can I help you ladies?" a tall and (even Hinata blinded by love for Naruto had to admit) painfully handsome man had climbed out of his truck and arrived at Hinata's window

"Yes" Mai spoke before Hinata ever got a chance to "We're broke down and I think we're lost, we haven't been able to phone anyone" Mai then gave a suitably helpless girly smile before asking flirtily "can you help us? We'd really love a lift"

Never in her life had Hinata felt so much like punching someone, of the three things she had asked Mai not to say her friend had said all three. Hinata was beginning to remember why she and Mai rarely saw each other, if everything was going fine Mai was a great friend to have but make things difficult and immediately the girl was in for a throttling if she wasn't careful.

"Do you have a spare wheel?" the man asked curiously

"No" Hinata shook her head angrily "If you could just get us to a phone it would be appreciated."

"Sure no problem" The man smiled indicating his truck "hop in"

Mai squealed before jumping out of the car and running to climb into the truck. Hinata followed a little more slowly. She was still nervous but with two of them there hopefully it wouldn't prove to be too dangerous. Safety in numbers and all that!

"My names Shinji by the way"

They drove along long winding roads and all the time Mai flirted, she smiled girlishly at their 'rescuer' as she has started to call him enjoying the smiles the man gave in return. Beside her Hinata was feeling more and more exhausted, she was pretty sure she had hurt her back while changing the tyre. What she needed now was a hot drink and some paracetemol.

Finally the truck turned into a large sprawling mansion making both girls gasp

"Is this yours?" Mai asked turning up the flirt volume

"Nah I'm just a tenant, The place has three flats and the rest belongs to the Futrelle family. It's been theirs for centuries. We're all students here so it's a bit like living in halls."

"Wow" Mai was still pretty impressed, she had always loved old buildings and legends and stories that went with it. "Does it have rats or spiders? I hate spiders"

"No, it's actually very modern inside"

"Does it have a ghost?" she asked excitedly looking up at the old building

"There are stories" the man admitted "but I've never seen anything and I've lived here for years. When we're iside I'll see if Arthurs around to tell you the story."

"Does it have a phone?" Hinata asked feeling that one of them ought to ask about something practical.

"Yeah" Shinji nodded "Just no milk, that's why I was driving around" he lifted up a large carton of milk smiling. "You're lucky I came out, normally I would have left it till morning." Parking the car he smiled at the girls. "Ready to make a run for the door?"

"Shinji?" They were greeted at the front door by a young woman with blonde hair tied into bunches around her head "we were getting worried, who are these two?"

"Temari this is Hinata and Mai" Shinji explained as the three of them ran into the front hallway "a couple of victims of that awful road out there. I swear if the council doesn't fix that soon I'm gonna start some sort of protest!"

"You're soaked" The blonde said to Hinata, "both of you come on in, would you like some tea?"

"Please!" Hinata smiled gratefully as she lifted up her cell phone pleased to see that here she could make a phone call "I tried to change the tyre."

"What went wrong?"

"We didn't have a new one" the dark haired girl glared at her friend who blushed shyly.

Laughter followed this statement as the two girls were led into a warm very modern kitchen and made themselves comfortable. Conversation seemed to flow easily and Hinata felt it was alright to accept their invitation to stay the night, after all she had called the car service and Naruto telling them her location, Naruto had wanted to come pick her up but she didn't want him to come out in the bad weather. Eventually Mai managed to bring it round to the ghost that Shinji had mentioned earlier.

"Oh don't tell that story" Temari shivered a little "I hate it"

"What do you hate?" A new man joined them at this moment, he was tall, dark and handsome, in fact all the people in this place were good looking. Hinata felt out of place and wondered if there was something in water around here.

"Ah this is Arthur Futrelle" Shinji stood up to introduce the man "the owner of this fine establishment and the best person to tell this story"

"Not the ghost" Arthur groaned smiling "every time we have newcomers we tell this story. Let me guess you broke down?"

"Yeah, and I'd love to hear this story." Once again Mai was flirting and Hinata rolled her eyes.

Arthur smiled and nodded "Alright."

"This house was finished in the late Edwardian era, it is from a time when people didn't really understand mental health. One of the members of my family had a problem, no one knew exactly what it was but from the sounds of the symptoms it sounds like he was bipolar. Anyway he was locked in the uppermost room in the house away from the family with only a doctor for company.

After he died there stories began about ghostly wailing and footsteps in the night belonging to the deceased man. Then stories started up that anyone who spent the night in the room would be gone by next morning. Spirited away by the dead man

The first recorded disappearance though was that of a man called Mencken, in July 1932, he was a scientist who studied the paranormal. He went up to the room locking himself in. They had placed seven locks on the door so seven people were invited, each locked their lock and kept their key with them. They then all retired for the night each locking their own doors so their own key would be safe.

The person sleeping in the room underneath the attic says that she heard nothing all night but next morning when they went in they got no response. Worried the seven unlocked their side of the door but it was still locked from the inside. Eventually they broke down the door to find… nothing. He was gone.

His clothes lay on the floor with a weird sort of substance on them, ectoplasm people said.

Since that night six other people have spent the night there and disappeared."

"Oh my god" Mai whispered when the story was done "that's so cool, do you believe it?"

"I do" Temari said decidedly "that room gives me the creeps."

"Well I don't believe in that kind of thing" Hinata said relaxedly "look I really need to get some sleep my backs killing me."

"Of course" Temari stood up and smiled "I'll show you a room"

"I'll just have another drink" Mai said smiling at the two men. Hinata rolled her eyes but said nothing, she knew it was pointless.

--

Hinata awoke next morning to discover herself in an unknown room but as she sat up the pain in her back reminded her of what had happened. Sighing she rolled over and redressed herself in last nights now dry clothes.

She was just on her way to the kitchen when a yell sounded above her

"MAI?" Hinata frowned she knew that voice, it belonged to Arthur Futrelle the man she had met last night "MAI OPEN THIS DOOR!"

Shaking the last remnants of sleep from her mind Hinata turned and followed the voice and thumping she could hear, she ran around the house through odd corridors, losing her way twice she had to retrace her steps. Eventually Hinata arrived upstairs to find a man desperately trying to knock down a door.

"What's happened?" Hinata asked desperately staring at the man who was perspiring due to the amount of energy he was putting into his actions. She saw his expression and then looked at the old wooden door, understanding dawned "What room is this?"

"I am so sorry, she insisted"

"No" Hinata started banging on the door and screaming out for her friend, getting no response she turned back to Arthur "Help me!"

"I'll get some tools" he ran off down the stairs leaving Hinata to pound away at the door

"Mai" Exhausted Hinata stopped yelling to say "If you are in there and are doing this for a joke then I swear to god I am never going to talk to you again. Mai? MAI?"

--

"And when you opened the door she was just gone?" Shikamaru asked as he and Hinata stood staring around at the small room. He carefully surveyed the bedroom, it was a simple room with a sloped ceiling, on either side there were two windows both very high up with bars across. It was clear form the dust that the windows hadn't been opened in years. There was a large four posted bed up against the far wall, there was a small door.

"Yes" Hinata nodded "she had even jammed a chair under the door, Shikamaru we have to find her."

"What's that door?"

"It leads to an en-suite bathroom" Hinata walked forward and opened the door, inside was a small room with a toilet, sink and bathtub. There was a small window in this room as well but it too was barred and showed evidence of having been shut for years.

"And her clothes were where exactly?"

"Back through here" Hinata showed Shikamaru back into the other room where Mai's clothes lay on the floor "We haven't moved anything, I wouldn't let them."

"Good girl" Shikamaru gave her an approving nod, he watched as his colleague stood poking her fingers together nervously in an action he hadn't seen for a long time.

"Shikamaru… you will, you will be able to solve this won't you?"

"Hey I'm not called a genius for nothing" Hinata grinned at her colleague as he looked around the room "I'm gonna start searching this place, Hinata do you know what room is below this one?"

"The room I slept in actually" Hinata shook her head "I didn't hear anything"

"Are you sure that's the room?"

"Yeah, it's a veritable rabbit's warren in this place but you can see the windows from outside in the grounds. I'll show you later."

"Can you answer another question and promise you won't get offended?"

"Ok" Hinata agreed

"Is your friend Mai… does she like to pull practical jokes?"

"Not like this" Hinata shook her head "I've known her a few years and all she does are those silly jokes you know jumping out at you. If she was playing a joke on us she would have been hiding under the bed and would have jumped out straight away. She doesn't make people worry, not like this."

From their position at the top of the house the two of them heard cars arriving. "That'll be the rest of the team" Shikamaru told her grinning as he watched her blush increase "why don't you go and let Naruto you're ok?" Seeing her startled look Shikamaru just shrugged "Hey I'm not called a genius for nothing!"

--

Last night after getting that phone call from Hinata telling him she was stating in a strangers house Naruto had been worried. He had, had trouble sleeping as he wondered about whether or not she was ok and when he received a frantic phone call from his girlfriend he had wanted to rush immediately to be at her side but Hinata had insisted he bring the team with him so he was going to have to act professionally.

"Hinata!" both Sakura and Ino ran forward as the pale woman left the house, she gave them all a sad smile before being enveloped in a hug by the two female police officers.

"And I thought things would be boring this weekend" Sakura murmured as she wrapped her arms around her friend "Kakashi's away, just a little light paperwork."

"I'm sorry to get you all in on your day off" Hinata apologised as soon as she was let go, she gazed at Naruto and gave him a coy smile, he grinned back at her.

"No trouble" Naruto shrugged his shoulders and placed one hand behind his head "And I even got something that might help"

"Really?" Ino looked at him surprised

"Yeah, that idiot Sasuke" Naruto jerked a thumb over his shoulder and Hinata was surprised to see a bored looking Uchiha exit the car. Immediate Sakura and Ino gave the dark brooding man their best smiles making Hinata roll her eyes, she knew that if Mai were here right now no doubt that she too would be fawning over… Hinata sighed as she remembered the reason that they were all here was because Mai wasn't here.

"How can Sasuke help?" Sakura asked but as soon as the words were out of her mouth the question was answered.

"Uchiha?"

"Futrelle" Sasuke nodded towards the owner of the house with a disinterested expression

"What are you doing here?" Arthur Futrelle looked over at Sasuke with a confused expression

"I work with this lot, when they told me what had happened **someone**" he cast a look at Naruto "decided I could help."

"Shut up you idiot" Naruto hissed at his friend (I'm going to call them friends but lets face it this is Sasuke and Naruto here! It doesn't mean they'll be nice to each other) "you suggested it" he quickly turned his attention back to Hinata "how you doing?"

Hinata shrugged shaking her head "I just don't understand. How could she disappear?"

--

"Ok Shikamaru, you tell us what you know and then we'll say what we found out" Sasuke said once they had all sat down in the main room. "What have we got from the room?"

"Right" Shikamaru stood in front of everyone "this is what we know so far. Mai entered the room at 11:55pm, she locked herself in and you" he pointed to Arthur "Locked the other side"

"She asked me to"

"If she asked you to jump over a cliff would you have done it?" Temari asked her friend accusingly. "Carry on please Shikamaru"

"Thank you. At 8:00am Arthur tried to open the door but was unable to and Mai made no response to questioning. Hinata then came upon the scene and attempted to open the door. It wasn't until Shinji arrived with tools that you managed to open the door. It was then that they discovered Mai was definitely gone. Her clothes were found on the floor of her room where she had probably left them in order to sleep for the night. There are no trap door that I can find, no loose floorboards, no trick doors. I have been checking the whole thing over and there doesn't even seem to be any hollow sounding places. I asked them to put the locks back on and from what I see there is no likelihood of trickery there. It's all very sturdy."

"Anything else?" Naruto asked

"Well there is one thing" Shikamaru spoke slowly "The bed, when you apply pressure to the mattress these dead flies seem to fall from the canopy above, there's a spiders web up there. It may be nothing but… well I never like to discount anything."

"Alright" Sasuke nodded "Well after some persuasion we managed to get Arthur to let us into his great grandfathers study. We found a number of papers pertaining to the first recorded case. There were some old newspaper cuttings so we can be sure that the Mencken disappeared on the 25th of July 1932. There were also some odd scribblings in Latin but Arthur translated them and they don't mean anything"

"We also found a diary page" Sakura spoke up "it says '_Mencken disappearance still not solved it's the riddle of the attic, there one minute gone the next'_ it's dated Friday April 22nd We're guessing because he wrote about it for some months afterwards maybe it was something really troubling that played on Futrelle's mind. In know it's not important but you said not to discount anything"

"Wait" Temari spoke quickly "April 22nd in 1933 was a Saturday, it was 1932 when April 22nd was a Friday. He died in December 1936 so… That means that this was written before the event."

"Are you sure?" Shikamaru asked staring amazed at the blonde facing him surprised that she had been able to work it out so quickly.

"You better believe it" Shinji muttered "She's got a gift"

"So hang on" Hinata spoke quietly "Futrelle was talking about this months before the actual disappearance. So maybe the two of them rigged something and it went wrong."

"Yeah but that would mean that the same thing has been happening to everyone else that ever stayed in that room and while Mencken may have know a way out why have other people found it when we can't?" Shikamaru asked

"Good point" Hinata nodded "I guess I was just getting hopeful…" she trailed off sadly and Sakura put a comforting arm around her.

"Remember it could be nothing," Shikamaru reminded her "What else did you find"

"Well there was this" Naruto held out an old newspaper cutting, it was an article about the burning of the Reichstag Building in 1933 "it doesn't seem like much but he wrote something weird on it"

"Felix dies" Shikamaru read "Who was Felix?"

"I figured we could find out if there was anyone that they knew called Felix, it would mean that he was in on it" Ino suggested. "If it was a hoax"

"Right you girls get onto that" Shikamaru commanded Ino and Sakura "Sasuke, Naruto and I are going to look through all these papers with you again. See if we can find something else. I don't know if there's anything to eat around here?" he suggested hopefully making Temari laugh

"I'll fix you all something, but don't get used to it"

"Shinji I don't suppose you can go sort out Mai's car, tow it here, that way we can see if there's something that suggests Mai was…" Shikamaru trailed off apologetically as he looked at Hinata

"It's alright" Hinata shrugged "standard procedure, I know."

"Ok we'll look for soemthing to see if it suggests that Mai might have been planning to do something to herself. Hinata I'm going to have to ask you to…"

"Stay out the way, I know" Hinata nodded, "I'm going to take a walk"

"Do you want someone to come with you?" Naruto offered

"No thanks" Hinata shook her head, Naruto nodded accepting her answer but he looked worried. Seeing his for her concern she grinned "There's an old church across the fields behind the house, I'm going to head to there and back, it won't take more than an hour or two"

--

If there was one thing Hinata hated it was feeling useless, she walked along the path leading up to the church sighing. Inside the church was old and Gothic, it had a nice feel to it, peaceful. Walking down the aisle past the pews Hinata noticed a small metal gate to her left. Above the gate written in fancy italics was the name

_**Futrelle.**_

In pace semper

"Rest in peace"

Interested Hinata walked forward and pushed at the gate, it swung open easily surprising her but she slipped through the gate and slowly made her way gingerly down the stairs being wary of her back that still hurt. Slipping her hand into her pocket she was grateful that she still had the torch from the previous night in her pocket. Looking around she wasn't surprised to discover that she was indeed in an old mausoleum. It was dusty and filled with grey stone but for some reason Hinata shone her torch onto the stones reading the various names and dates. Finally she discovered Arthur's great grandfather shining her torch onto the grave she read

'hic ego recubo permeus carus'

"Here I lie with my beloved" Hinata read to herself "that's actually kind of sweet… Latin" her torch dropped to the floor. "He used to write in Latin. Oh my God 'Felix di es' not 'Felix Dies'."

Turning Hinata ran leaving the torch on the ground and began to make her way back to the house.

--

"It's not Felix dies," Hinata told the group impatiently "It's felix di es, Latin. It means happy day. He wrote happy day in latin"

"Happy day?" Naruto asked "didn't the Reichstag building burning down help bring Hitler to power? Who would think that was a happy day?" he got surprised looks for the others and said defensively "Hey I know my history."

"An anti Semite would think it was a happy day" Hinata said turning apologetically to Arthur "Your great grandfather was probably strongly anti-Semitic, a lot of people were in those days. Hitler didn't only have enemies in this country there were a lot of Nazi sympathisers here. There was even a rumour that he had visited old freinds in this part of the country"

"That still doesn't explain the disappearances" Arthur spoke rudely not liking the conversation

"Ah shut up" Sasuke muttered to his friend "we're not blaming you for your families mistakes but we do need to find that girl." He then proceeded to give his old school friend a death glare who returned it with gusto!

"It could help to explain one disappearance" Shikamaru decided "Mencken was a Jew, he and your great grandfather were rivals, an anti-Semite would despise Mencken and hate having a rival that belonged to a race/religion he considered beneath him."

"So that page in the diary, that was planning Mencken's death not some elaborate escape or hoax?" Ino asked giving a shiver "That's so cruel"

"Yeah well whatever happened, whatever Futrelle did it's still killing people." Temari pointed out, "there have been six other… seven other people that disappeared from that room now."

--

It had been a long day and not much had been solved. Shikimaru decided that tomorrow they would have to report the whole thing properly to the police and allow someone else to take over, after all tomorrow Mai would have been missing for twenty four hours and it would definitely not be a cold case anymore.

Hinata didn't want to leave though, she needed to know, she wanted to know what had happened. Slowly she left her own room and made her way along to Shikamaru's. Lifting a hand she rapped lightly on the door.

"Come in Hinata" The lazy voice called out surprising Hinata, how had he known it would be her?

"Hi Shikamaru" the young woman smiled as she entered the room

"I know what you want and the answer is no"

"Please hear me out" Hinata begged doing her best to look sad and pathetic as she tilted her head to the side. "Please"

"Oh god" Shikamaru stared at the girl and after a few minutes of teary eyes and lower lip trembling from Hinata the scientist nodded "Fine tell me what you want"

--

"Are you sure about this?" Shikamaru asked as he looked around the room "We don't know what is happening and I don't want to face Naruto tomorrow if you go missing"

"Naruto and I are ju…"

"Just friends, yeah, yeah!" Shikamaru waved a hand impatiently "Now I'm right below you and I'm alight sleeper so if anything goes wrong just start banging on the floor. Now, do you want me to lock the door?"

"Yes, it had to be exactly as it was when Mai was in here"

"Alright, now you have your phone with you as well?"

"Yes, good night Shikamaru, come up at 8:30 on the dot ok? And make sure it's you, I don't want Naruto to freak out about this."

"Ok. Good night, and you better be here in the morning" Shikamaru threatened the girl before he finally closed the door and twisting the key in the lock walked back down to his room.

Standing in the room Hinata looked around nervously. Only last night Mai had been up here alone and something had happened. Shrugging Hinata moved over to the bed and removed her jeans and jacket, she prayed to god that the mattress wasn't too uncomfortable her back was still ridiculously painful. Maybe after all this was over she'd get Naruto to massage it. She blushed a little at that idea. Damn her childish blush, would she ever grow out of it?

Lying down she was suddenly made aware of what Shikamaru had meant about dead flies dropping down from the canopy above. Shivering a little she brushed away the bugs and pulled the blankets over herself. Lying back in the bed she waited for something, anything to happen.

--

Nothing.

Hinata got out of her bed feeling very dissatisfied that morning.

She had been awoken by the light from the windows hitting her face, groaning she picked up her watch and looked at it.

8:24

Shikamaru was due back at up here 8:30

Rolling over she gasped in pain. Hinata's back was still painful from when she had been changing the tyre and that mattress had been lumpier than she thought. Standing she looked around. Shikamaru was due in a few minutes but she could always lock the door and call out to them, she had time for a quick relaxing bath. Smiling happily she went to lock the door and then set her phone down on the bed.

Walking into the mini bathroom Hinata turned on the taps and was pleased to discover that the water was already very warm. She filled the bath enjoying the steam that entered the room, relaxing herself. Somehow she had managed to survive a night in this room. Part of her was annoyed, she was desperate to discover what had happened to Mai. But the other part of her was thrilled, she had survived, nothing had happened. Shikamaru was going to feel so dumb when he came up and heard that she was fine.

Stripping off her clothes she tested the water with one hand, it was the perfect temperature. She climbed into the bath lowering herself into the hot water. She was just beginning to relax closing her eyes in satisfaction when it happened. The bath was creaking noisily and suddenly she felt it dip below her.

Her eyes snapped open and she saw that she was being lowered into deep water below.

She desperately tried to cling to the bathtub but the slippery surface and her wet skin did for her and she could feel herself slipping

"NARUTO"

It was the last thing she managed to yell before she fell into the deep water below.

--

"You mean Hinata stayed in that room last night?" Naruto asked stunned as Shikamaru lazily stirred a cup of tea.

"She insisted, I didn't lock her in properly, just the one lock but she said she really needed to know what happened."

"You shouldn't have let her" Sasuke said, for once in complete agreement with Naruto "We still have no clue what really happened up there."

"Give me the key Shikamaru" Naruto held out his hand his eyes threatening death to the scientist if he didn't comply.

"She made me promise to open it myself, look I'm going up now ok?"

"Just hurry up and if anything's happened to her I will kill you!"

"Geez Naruto if you're gonna date a girl on the force you have to get used to her working in dangerous situations" Shikamaru pointed out

"I know I just…" Naruto paused realising he had just given away the fact that he and Hinata were actually dating "Damn you Shikamaru!" the other two just smirked knowingly.

Laughing together Naruto, Sasuke and Shikinmaru walked up the stairs to the attic room not exactly hurrying until thy heard it

"NARUTO"

"Hinata" Naruto hissed and he took off at a run, Shikamaru was directly behind him dropping the mug of tea as he ran following the desperate man and pulling a key from his pocket as he moved. Sasuke was right behind them tripping as he stood on the mug that lay in his path but moving quickly towards the source of the scream.

Naruto was standing at the door calling out Hinata's name as Shikamaru arrived, the key was in the lock and turned in seconds but the door wouldn't open.

"Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit" Naruto cursed "she locked the other side"

"On three" Shikamaru declared readying himself to break down the door.

The three of them counted together "one, two three" and then rammed their shoulders into the door. "Again, one, two three"

--

Hinata tried to hold her breath as she fought to get back into the bath but she couldn't get a grip. Something brushed against her back and she turned, screaming she let go of the only air in her mouth. There she was Mai, floating in the dark dank water, in the light from the opening she could see the petrified expression on her face and Hinata fought to get away. That was when she saw the other bodies.

The other corpses were all in a worse state than Mai, they had been here longer and as a result were more decayed. Hinata desperately swam back trying to get into the bathtub and out when she heard the grinding noise that had started before she was dumped in here. Panicking Hinata realised that the tub was moving back into position ready to seal her in.

She was going to drown in here

--

"Again one, two three" Another ram and this time the two of them burst into the empty room

"Oh god" Naruto muttered looking around

"The bathroom" Shikamaru yelled running into the next room, on entering he saw where the bath tub was dipping down into the tank of water below. He could see something moving in the water.

Naruto, who had followed him in, was running to the bath tub in no time, he jumped into the tub not thinking twice, luckily for him Sasuke was right behind him and he too jumped in but he managed to wedge his foot into the gap practically crushing his strong shoes but making sure that the bathtub stopped moving before it closed Hinata in. Shikamaru kept a firm hold on Naruto as he reached in and took hold of Hinata's arms. Holding onto her tightly Naruto pulled her out of the water tank and into the air.

Sobbing Hinata took deep gasping breaths of air as she was pulled from what was almost her watery grave. Not caring that she was naked and in the presence of two men that weren't her boyfriend she clung to Naruto letting him hold her and trying to calm down.

Wrapping his arms around his girlfriend Naruto held onto Hinata, looking over her shoulder he watched as both Shikamaru and Sasuke moved safely away from the bathtub. The two men nodded to him and Shikamaru handed him a towel as they left the room giving the two time alone.

"It's alright Hinata" Naruto kissed hinata's forehead wiping the wet strands of hair from her face and pressing desperate kisses to her cheeks and lips. "I've got you, I've got you." He wrapped the towel around her and sitting on the floor held her tight waiting for her to calm down.

--

"It was rather simple really" Shikamaru explained, "that room we were in is not the one we think it is, because of the way this house was built its hard to tell where you are half the time. I noticed when standing outside that there are two sets of windows that look like that attic room but as they are so high up you can't tell. Futrelle managed to set up a water tank underneath the floor of that room and as everyone thought it was the room I slept in last night no one ever thought to look underneath properly. He knew that the story of a ghost would make Mencken desperate to try it out so he arranged a visit. First though he had to set up for an advanced system of pulleys to drop the bath down when there was a certain amount of weight in the."

Shikamaru looked at Hinata who was sitting next to Naruto sipping at a cup of tea before continuing.

"I think that there used to be something above the canopy in that room, something that dropped a gooey substance onto the person sleeping below, that way Futrelle could ensure that Mencken would take a bath. I don't know how Mai felt about bugs and spiders but when they dropped down on her while she was sleeping there she must have freaked out a bit and wanted to wash properly."

"But surely people have stayed in that room and not bathed" Sakura spoke up "I mean I don't use baths I only like showers, if I had been there I would have waited."

"Yes but history has a habit of remembering the tragedies around things like this. There may have been people that stayed and didn't disappear but what kind of a story would that make" Sasuke told them with a shrug, "This morning we did find some stories of people who have stayed there and not disappeared but how would have ever known what they did differently?"

There was a long silence while everyone processed the information. It was a truly horrific way to die and they had almost lost Hinata.

"Naruto" Shikamaru said decisively "you take Hinata to be checked out at the hospital, we'll finish up here."

--

Sitting in the car Naruto didn't turn on the engine straight away he just sat staring through the windshield trying to think of some thing to say. He wasn't good at this type of awkward situation, in fact he wasn't good in any situation where you had to be tactful and comforting. 'Oh well' he thought to himself 'here goes'

"Hinata are you alright?"

"I will be" Hinata didn't even turn to look at him straight away, she just sat staring out the side window. There was a long silence as the two of them tried to decide what to say, finally Hinata whispered "was there anything I could have done?" He made no response giving her a curious look. Realising that she still wasn't looking at him he asked

"What do you mean Hinata?"

"Could I have saved her, all I had to do was be a bit quicker and…"

"No Hinata, she was gone the moment she got into that bath. There was no way she could have survived that. You only did because we were already headed your way."

"You should have seen her face" her shoulders shook as she began to cry "she looked so terrified"

"Come here" Naruto wrapped his arms around Hinata pulling her close and dropping a kiss on her head "Hinata it was not your fault, she wanted to go to that party, she was the one that forgot about the spare wheel, she made you go with Shinji, she wanted to stay in the room. You were the one that would have argued with her at every turn."

"I guess" Hinata nodded and lifted her head to look into Narutos eyes "I just kept hoping that…"

"That she was still alive?"

"Yeah, and I know it was stupid, I mean if she was still alive she would have been calling out for help right?"

"Maybe," Naruto felt so stupid, at times like this Hinata deserved a boyfriend who would say all the right things, who would know exactly what to do. "Damn I wish, I wish I knew what to say"

Hinata smiled and wrapped her arms tightly around Naruto "Just hold me" she whispered "I always feel safer in these arms"

They sat in that awkward and uncomfortable embrace for some time, reaching over the gear stick Naruto could feel one arm going to sleep but he wasn't going to move until Hinata did. After a few minutes Hinata pulled away smiling sadly "Can we get out of here now?"

"Of course honey" Naruto turned and starting the car drove away from the beautiful sprawling mansion that had caused her so much pain.

* * *

I know Temari may seem a little ooc with her saying she thinks the room is creepy but hey It's late at night and I'm tired, please don't hate me!

Please R&R


End file.
